Eye of the Beholder
by SyxkeaXIV
Summary: Following the incident in New Orleans, the team's next mission will begin a chain of events that may bring them together or tear them apart. Wally and Artemis especially need to learn to look deeper than what's in front of them. Slight AU, mild Spitfire, OCs present but no romance.
1. Research and Rivers

Disclaimer: I think it goes without saying that I do not own the rights to Young Justice, either the animated show or the comics, or any other media that might be involved. It belongs to DC Comics, Cartoon Network, and all other people involved with individual character creations. The only things involved in this fic that belong to me (to put it lightly) are any original characters and the original plot. I am making no profit off of borrowing this universe, characters, and so forth.

Note: This fic takes place just after "Insecurity" from Season One, and is pretty much AU from that point forward. So, no Rocket joining the team (at this point), no meeting at Santa Prisca, no revelation of any of the team's secrets, and no Vandal Savage takeover at the Watchtower.

* * *

_Quebec City, Quebec, Canada_

_December 9, 00:21 EST_

Kid Flash lay in the water of the Saint Charles River in the city of Quebec, too exhausted to move. He spat some of the water out of his mouth. His vision was blurring, and he could feel some blood running down his face from his head injury.

That fight he was just in took a lot out of him. Even as a speedster, he still managed to get hit. He wondered…who on earth did he and Artemis just fight? Who were they working for?

He collapsed again, not realizing that most of his body was still submerged.

* * *

_Mount Justice_

_December 8, 19:05 EST_

_5 Hours Earlier_

Wally stood impatiently in the Mission Room, waiting for the arrival of Batman and the rest of the team. He had gotten a text saying that a mission had come up and that he was needed at the Cave. Zatanna, Conner, Kalder, and M'gann were already there, so they were just waiting on Robin, Roy, Artemis and, of course, Batman himself.

Wally thought it was a little odd that they had a mission so soon after the one following Cheshire and Sportsmaster that he had been on just a few days ago. The team usually had at least a week in between. Did that mean that Batman was becoming more confident in their abilities? Somehow, he didn't think so.

He looked up as the Zeta Tubes announced Artemis' arrival. Honestly, Wally wasn't sure he was up for another mission so soon, considering that the last one had been such disaster, heavy on the dis. He forced himself to look away as Artemis went to stand next to Zatanna. Wally had practically spilled his guts out to the blonde, going out of his comfort zone to tell Artemis that it didn't matter that Red Arrow was also an archer on the team, that she had proven herself time and time again…but it hasn't mattered. She had still gone behind their backs after the villains, with the end result of failing to get the case they had been tracking. Wally suppressed a sigh.

Not getting the case wasn't what bothered him. It was that Artemis had just completely disregarded what he said. It had taken him time to build up the courage to try and be comforting to her, and it meant nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The young speedster was taken out of his thoughts by the arrival Roy, followed shortly by Batman and Robin. The Dark Knight ordered the group to gather around one of the monitors with a map of southeastern Canada. Wait…Canada?

"There have been multiple reports of bombings in Quebec City, along with thefts and sabotage at various research labs and storage facilities, over the past month," Batman explained. "The targets include electronics, labs focusing on genetic research, suppliers for chemical experimentation, and large-scale pet stores."

"Pet stores?" Robin echoed. "Weird place to be stealing from."

"True, most of the targets focus on state of the art technologic and biological sciences. One of the targets even includes a subdivision of WayneTech in northern Quebec City," Batman agreed. "The animal facilities do not fit with the rest of the pattern."

Wally crossed his arms. A WayneTech subdivision? Well, that would explain why Batman was so interested in the cause of these attacks.

"Your mission is to investigate the cause of these bombings and see if a different pattern emerges," the Dark Knight continued. "This mission is purely covert. You are to gather intelligence only."

'_Purely covert'? _Wally thought, holding back a snort. _Why bother? Most of our 'covert' missions never end up staying covert._

"Understood," said Kalder. "We will report when we have all the information we can gather."

"This flash drive contains the locations of all the bombings," Batman informed the Team leader, handing the Atlantean the drive. "Contact the cave once you have completed your investigations, and the Justice League will conduct a more public inquiry from there."

"All hands on deck then," Robin said, with a nod and a smile to Kalder.

"Has anyone here ever been to Quebec?" Zatanna asked as the team left to change into uniform.

* * *

_Quebec City, Quebec, Canada Airspace_

_December 8, 21:10 EST_

After about two hours of flying, the team arrived at their destination of Quebec City, Canada. At Aqualad's request, Robin brought up the information from the flash drive onto the screens on the Bioship. Highlighting the locations of the previous attacks with bright dots, Aqualad laid out his plan to the team.

"As Batman said, most of the attacks have occurred in northern Quebec City," he explained. "There have been a total of eight attacks over the past four weeks, each at different locations. The attacks seem to occur approximately every three to four days."

"Is that coincidence or are the ones responsible planning it that way?" Red Arrow thought out loud.

"Most of the locations have been thoroughly searched by Canadian police and deemed complete enough by Batman's standards," Aqualad continued. "We are going to split up into groups of two and each take one of the remaining locations."

Miss Martian took a look at each of the locations, judging their distance from each other. There was a distinct problem there.

"Aqualad?" she said. The one in question looked towards her. "I don't think my telepathic link can reach that far between those locations."

"I was meaning to ask. It appears we will need to rely on our communicators rather than the link," Aqualad confirmed.

"Hopefully no one will have a problem with that this time," Red Arrow said snidely, looking at Artemis out of the corner of his eye. The archer in green gave him a scowl in response.

"Red Arrow, you and I will investigate the chemical plant on Rue des Loutres," Aqualad interrupted before a fight could break out. "As expected, various chemicals and documents about certain reactions have been taken from there. It was also one of the first places to be bombed. We will find out what the perpetrators were after."

Red Arrow gave one more glare at Artemis before nodding to Aqualad.

"Robin and Superboy, you will take the computer factory on Boulevard Raymond," the leader went on. "Computer hardware has been stolen from this location, and has had multiple episodes of explosions unrelated to their hardware. Find out what specifically was taken and what the thieves' motive may be."

The two teens in question nodded, although Superboy was looking rather more surly than usual.

"Miss Martian and Zatanna, you two will investigate the animal feed storage facility on Rue Leo-Savard," Aqualad ordered. Zatanna suddenly thought it was pretty funny to hear Aqualad speak even a few French words with an Atlantean accent. "As expected, this facility houses animal feed for the nearby zoos, and multiple thefts have been reported."

"Were there any bombings there?" Zatanna asked.

"Oddly enough no, there have been no reports at this location," Aqualad answered. "We need to see what was taken and possibly see if there was a reason this location was spared further damage."

The two women gave a nod. Aqualad finally turned to the two remaining members of the team as Miss Martian landed the Bioship at their deemed rendezvous point.

"Kid Flash and Artemis, you take Circe Industries near Rue Bourdages," he ordered. He was a little surprised to see that neither of the two looked angry at their assignment. "This is an animal research lab that was most recently bombed, and much of the documents regarding their experiments there have been stolen. I am sure you know what to do."

"Pretty obvious, yeah," Artemis muttered, suddenly unsure about her being paired with the speedster again. Regardless, she grabbed her bow and quiver and started to head for the Bioship exit.

"Most of these locations have been evacuated since the attacks, but stay on your toes in case you come across anyone," Aqualad warned the group.

"Good chance that someone claiming to be an employee may be one of our perpetrators," Robin reasoned, standing as well.

The group started to head out, most of them switching their uniforms to stealth mode. It was already dark outside, and it was probably better than everyone remain undetected if possible. Once most of the group had left for their respective assignments, Aqualad held Kid Flash back with a grab to his arm.

"Kid," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. The ginger looked at him. "Are you all right with being partnered with Artemis?"

"…It's the job," Kid Flash answered after a pause. "No personal emotions on a mission, right?"

"I didn't mean for it to turn out that way, but I wanted to keep the teams as balanced as possible," Aqualad explained to him. "Irrespective of your past arguments, you and Artemis work well as a team."

"I guess it's better than trying to get Red Arrow and Artemis to work together again, huh?"

Aqualad chuckled. "That is very true."

* * *

Circe Industries was a four story building just off the Saint Charles River. Parts of the third and fourth floors were in complete ruin. According to Batman's report, it had been bombed from the inside out, leaving a gaping hole in a number of stories and a few meters into the center. Kid Flash and Artemis looked over these areas with just a glance. There was not a lot they could find in the remaining debris anyway.

The rest of the labs, however, were very interesting if not a little disturbing. The lab had been studying rats in which their DNA altered and combined with that of human DNA, and comparisons of the rats' development to that of normal rats were being made. These allegedly "part human" rats had slightly higher intelligence and were more finicky about their meals than the control rats. Most of the rats from the experiment had been killed in the explosion, although some had been rescued from the other labs in the building and taken when the scientists evacuated. Most of the documentation regarding the experimental rats, both on paper and stored in computer files, had also been taken or destroyed.

"Find anything?" Artemis inquired.

"Mostly just from where the rats were bought and a little on the funding for the research," Kid Flash responded. "Any information on the DNA exchanging process and the results of it are gone."

"That's mostly what I'm finding too," Artemis agreed. "But some of these files talk about starting experiments on other species. They're incomplete though."

"Well, moving on from the rats would make sense," Kid Flash concurred. "Reminds me of the Circe legend in Greek mythology. The woman who turns men into pigs and all that."

"Probably where this company got its name," the archer connected. "Except these people are going from animal to human instead of human to animal….You know Greek mythology?"

"Learned about it in English class, while reading The Odyssey," he replied. "Also learned that Artemis is the goddess of the hunt and uses a bow as well. Is that where your name came from?"

"I was named Artemis before I learned to shoot."

"…Good point."

Suddenly, the time when the two of them were alone in Bialya and she "admitted" to Kid Flash that he father taught her how to use her bow came to the forefront of Artemis' mind.

_Don't ask about my dad…_ She prayed in her head. _Don't ask about my dad…_

"Why would someone want to combine human and rat DNA to begin with?" Kid Flash wondered aloud, taking Artemis out of her thoughts. She gave an internal sigh of relief at the change in subject.

"Better subjects to test human medicine on maybe?" Artemis offered. "Or someone wants a novelty pet that's more intelligent."

"Assuming you want a smart pet rat," he said with a smirk. "Rats are pretty smart as is. One with enhanced intelligence could be a problem. You every read The Secret of NIMH?"

"No."

"It's about genetically enhanced rats and mice. You should read it sometime."

_Why is he acting like nothing's wrong?_ Artemis thought, a scowl still on her face. _ I mean, it's nice that we're not arguing, but I know he's still pissed at me. Why pretend like this?_

She watched as the red-head continued to look over the rest of the lab, paying attention to the files and the cages that previously held animals rather than her. He moved very smoothly around the room, the clumsiness that characterized him (especially when they first, officially met) having melted away. In fact, there was a lot of Kid Flash that changed since she first met him. He seemed more confident, more polite (sometimes) and had at least tried to get along with her nowadays (well, he had until the fiasco with Cheshire and Sportsmaster). He seemed to glide around the lab, his muscles sliding underneath his black uniform—

Artemis shook her head. She was _not _supposed to be having thoughts like this, especially not now. There was work to be done. It's not like she cared about Wally anyway. He was—

_**So, the person you're most worried about…is Wally.**_Black Canary's voice from a few months ago suddenly echoed in her mind.

"…port to Aqualad, huh?" Kid Flash's voice cut into her thoughts, bringing Artemis out of her reverie.

"Sorry, what?"

Kid Flash stared at her. "I said, I guess we should report to Aqualad."

"Yeah," Artemis replied. "Good idea."

Kid Flash stared at her for another second, and then turned away while muttering something.

"What did you say?" she asked. He didn't respond, so she asked again. "What did you say, Kid?"

"I said," Kid Flash answered. "That it would be nice if you listened to me once in a while."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Artemis growled.

"It means exactly what I said. You never listen," he argued. "You either completely ignore what I say or you dismiss me as an idiot."

"Well it's not like you have anything insightful to say," she disputed back.

"No, I guess not," Kid Flash sarcastically agreed. "Not like I said anything before the last mission that…Nevermind. Forget I said anything."

But Artemis wouldn't let it go. "That's different. There are things going on—"

"That you can't tell me? Why not?" he went on, starting to move towards her. "Maybe Red Arrow's right! You can't be trusted!"

"He's _not_ right! You can trust me!" she quarreled, moving towards Kid Flash at the same time. "You said so yourself that you didn't need me to prove anything to you!"

"Then tell me what happened!" Kid Flash yelled. "You say I can trust you? Then trust me to understand!"

Just like before, Artemis froze. She couldn't tell him that Cheshire was her sister or that Sportsmaster was her father. That would only prove Red Arrow's theory that she could be the mole on the team. She didn't need any more reinforcement of what her father had told her, when he snuck into her bedroom to try and convince her to switch sides. If they found out, she would lose the team's trust forever. Then again, _not_ confiding in Wally seemed to lose his trust anyway. She was in a lose-lose situation.

"I…can't," she stuttered, lowering her gaze from his piercing green eyes.

"…I thought you'd say that," Kid Flash said, his voice now a hiss. "How can we work as a team, if you won't tell us anything?"

"…Fine, you want to work as a team?" Artemis bickered, her own voice now an angry whisper. "Then how about you search that half of the building, and I'll search the other half."

"Fine."

"_Fine._"

With that, the two teen heroes simultaneously turned away from each other. Artemis stomped away towards a staircase. She looked over her shoulder at Kid Flash, whose shoulders looked slumped as he headed towards a door leading to more damaged parts of the lab. Artemis jumped down two flights of stairs silently and, after taking a few steps, covered her eyes with her hand.

_Way to go, Artemis_, she berated herself. _Arguing like that is _really_ going to build trust back up again._

Well, there went her chance of making up with Wally. He appeared to be actively trying to get along with her for this mission too, even to the point of being openly friendly towards her. That in itself was a huge accomplishment. It was very similar to the flight just before their mission in New Orleans. He had been incredibly encouraging then, and she had not only listened but had felt consoled. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. It didn't matter that Red Arrow was on the team, he wasn't taking her place…but it sure felt like it at the time. Now she lost whatever confidence she had gained then…Dammit, why did everything always come back to that mission in New Orleans?!

A bang and a shout came from the floor above her, and Artemis realized in an instant that it was Kid Flash. She spun around and leapt up the stairs again to reach where she had left him. Taking an arrow from her quiver, she loaded her bow and rushed through the door Artemis had seen him enter earlier.

The room was one that had been affected the most by the explosion. The outer wall had been completely blown away, leaving a large open gap to the outside. Being on the third floor, there was quite a drop to the ground below. Tables had been knocked over and splintered, broken glass from beakers and bottles were everywhere, and papers littered the floor and walls.

The lab was filled with six masked soldiers, who looked like a cross between samurai and medieval knights. Two of them carried guns, while the remaining four only had long broadswords. Their masks looked like horse or maybe deer skulls, with long snouts that went down to each person's neck. Their eyes were black, covered with cloth to prevent anyone from seeing their eye color.

In the center of the room was indeed Kid Flash, on his knees and his head locked in the crook of one of the soldier's arms. The soldier was holding a gun to his head, and glared (or glared as well as she could tell) at Artemis as she held her bow aimed at the soldier's own head.

"Another step and the boy's brains make wall art," the soldier warned. It was now clear that the person was a woman, although her armor made it very difficult to determine that by her appearance. "What are you doing here?"

"That's my question," Artemis argued. "Let him go, or you'll get a head full of arrow."

"It would seem we are at an impasse."

The other soldier carrying a gun lifted it and pointed it at Artemis. The four with swords raised their blades in a threatening manner as well. This was not good. Kid Flash was helpless and they were massively outnumbered. Artemis truly wished that Miss Martian's telepathy would work at longer distances. There was no way she could call for help with her radio without alerting these intruders.

"Lower your weapon," the soldier holding Kid Flash ordered, pushing the barrel of the gun into his forehead. Seeing no other choice at the moment, Artemis slacked her bow and lowered the arrow. She was pretty sure she could hear the soldier smirking as she lowered her head to speak to her prisoner. "Don't you try anything funny either, red."

"I ask again," Artemis demanded. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"We _were_ going to gather some information from this lab," the soldier answered. "But it seems you have destroyed it before we got the chance."

Artemis shook her head. "We didn't do this."

"Then who did?"

"That's what we were trying to find out," the archer informed. "But you were planning on stealing from here anyway."

"It isn't necessarily stealing…" the soldier teased. She relaxed her grip on Kid Flash very slightly. Artemis saw this very slight movement, and had a thought. "But that doesn't matter. I believe it's time for you to leave."

"Release him then," Artemis insisted. She took a step forward, and sure enough the soldier holding Kid Flash lifted her gun up to her.

"I said, don't move!"

But it was too late. Once the gun was off his head, Kid Flash rushed out of his captor's loosened grip and around the room. He slammed into the other soldier with a gun while Artemis raised her bow again and released it at the soldier in front of her. The two soldiers fell to the ground. The remaining four raised their swords and began swinging them around, trying to catch Kid Flash as he rammed into a few of them.

Artemis shot a number of her arrows, but most were deflected by the swords. One of her foam arrows managed to trap two of them, making them immobile. They struggled to get free as the other two swordsmen headed towards Artemis. She shot a net arrow at one of them while Kid Flash tackled the other. By this time, the two soldiers with guns got up and began shooting as well. Artemis took cover behind an overturned lab table.

"Kid Flash to team, Aqualad. We are under attack at Circe Industries. Six enemies, two armed with guns and four with swords," Kid Flash said with his communicator in his ear. Just as he was saying this, however, six more soldiers dressed the same as the originals jumped into the room from the floor above. These soldiers each had a handgun as well. "Make that twelve enemies, four with swords and eight with guns. Requesting backup immediately!"

"Understood," Aqualad's voice said over the communicator. "Red Arrow and I are closest. We'll be right there. Relaying to the rest of the team."

"Don't know if they'll get here in time," Artemis complained, jumping behind another table when the gunfire destroyed the one she has been behind previously.

Kid Flash rushed around, grabbing as many of the handguns from the soldiers as he could. He was able to disarm all but one, ironically the one that held him captive before. For the guns he did manage to take, he tossed them out of the building through the opening in the wall. The soldiers did not seem perturbed by this, as they simply started performing martial arts against the two teen heroes. Artemis started shooting arrows again, but the small space made it impossible for her to aim at the soldiers without hitting Kid Flash.

"Kid, we need more space!"

"On it!" With that, Kid Flash rushed to the gap in the wall and ran down the side of the building to the ground. As he hoped, seven of the soldiers followed him, and he began fighting them on the ground next to the river.

Seven unarmed solders, even those trained in martial and ninja arts, were no match for a speedster. Kid Flash was able to knock them all out in no time with a few well aimed punches, kicks and tackles. Once all of the soldiers were down, he went over to try and unmask one. Perhaps he could question one of them to see who they were, why they attacked and what they were after in the Circe Industries lab… He did not notice a hooded figure sneak up from behind him and shoot him with a dart.

Kid Flash immediately felt the effects of a tranquilizer dart once it hit his shoulder, and reeled back from the attack. Ripping the dart from his shoulder, his vision spun as he tried to focus on his attacker. This person was different from the other soldiers, wearing a complete black cloak that covered his entire body, including his face. To one side, he held a dart gun, which was obviously what the dart had been shot from.

"Not so fast when someone catches you off guard, Kid Flash?" the person hissed, his voice having an odd accent that Kid Flash couldn't recognize.

"Who are you?" he was barely able to speak due to the effects of the dart.

"Catch me if you can to find out," the hooded figure taunted, taking a leap over Kid Flash (who was shocked that someone could jump that high) and running down the street along the river.

Kid Flash, being the speedster that he was, was not about to let a challenge like that go. He rushed after the person, but he noticed that he was slower than he would have been normally. He found that he couldn't focus very well, and every time he caught up with his attacker, the man managed to jump out of the way. This man also was able to jump at least twenty feet high and a length of thirty feet in a single bound. Kid Flash actually wasn't sure if that was actually happening or if he was imaging it. The tranquilizer was having a greater effect on him than he thought.

"Not liking my drug much, are you?" the enemy teased again.

This time, when Kid Flash took a moment to try and orient himself, the man landed behind the hero and gave him a strong kick in the head. His vision went black immediately, and he didn't notice when he was dumped into the deep part of the nearby Saint Charles River.

* * *

Artemis, meanwhile, was having some trouble with her own set of enemies.

By this time, the four swordsmen who were still armed had escaped from Artemis' foam and net, and were heading towards her along with the only soldier that still had a gun. She parried the first swordsman with her bow and just barely dodged a bullet from the handgun. Artemis flipped backwards and shot another arrow, this time an explosive one. It knocked two of the soldiers into the still-intact wall, and the gun was knocked out of the last soldier's hand.

The remaining three soldiers with swords attacked Artemis simultaneously. She was able to dodge two of the attackers, but the third one slashed her in her in her back, leaving a superficial but still painful laceration. With a gasp of pain she kicked the swordsman away, lifting her bow again. The two previously unconscious soldiers stood again and advanced on her.

"How do you people keep going?!" Artemis wondered loudly.

Luck appeared to be on Artemis' side though. A smoke pellet was thrown into the room from the outside, obscuring the vision of everyone inside. Artemis could only stand and listen as she heard the soldier's grunt in apparent pain. As the smoke began to clear, she realized that four of the five soldiers she had been fighting had been knocked down again. The fifth one, carrying a sword, saw that Artemis had not moved and started to head for her again. However, he did not come close to reaching her. The sword that sliced through his chest from his back stopped him in his tracks.

Artemis watched as the soldier fell to the ground, revealing Cheshire behind him. She tugged her collapsible sword out of the soldier's body and looked up at Artemis. Before the young blonde could say anything, Cheshire grabbed her and lifted her into her arms. Taking a grappling hook from her belt, the masked antagonist swung her and her sister to a building on the other side of the street.

Artemis jumped away from her sister and took out another arrow, aiming it straight at Cheshire's head.

"Is that how you thank someone who just saved your life?" the elder sister asked.

"Thank you?! You just killed someone!" Artemis argued. "And I wouldn't trust you to not do the same to me!"

"First of all, we're sisters. I don't actually want you dead," Cheshire replied, her voice a little softer than she normally had it. "And second of all, I didn't kill anyone. Look."

Cheshire pointed towards the ruined lab they just left. Sure enough, five soldiers, including the one that Cheshire had stabbed, were up and moving. They jumped down from the third floor to the ground and began heading towards the river. Artemis' eyes narrowed.

"How..?"

"The mysteries of life," Cheshire said cryptically. "I suppose you and your team are investigating the bombings here."

It wasn't really a question. "What's it to you?"

"I am as well, along with some other hires from the Shadows," she told the archer, being oddly informative. "We're actually after the same person."

"What do you mean?" Artemis questioned, an arrow still set in her bow.

"Remember that case we fought over in New Orleans?" the dark-haired woman reminded. Artemis gave a nod grudgingly. Yet another reminder of the failed mission there. "Well, it was recently stolen from us, from the same people behind the attacks here."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I figured you might want to know who has the case, and that you might have a chance to get it."

Artemis however, with her extensive experience with the League of Shadows, nevermind her own sister, could see right through the ploy.

"Are you hoping I'll find the case for you?" she inquired, voice low and snide. "So you can take it from me after I get it?"

"That would be giving everything away," Cheshire responded.

"You give it all away by saying that," Artemis bit back.

Artemis could have sworn that she saw Cheshire smile behind her mask.

"Aren't you missing someone?" she joked.

_Wally!_

Artemis mentally slapped herself for forgetting about him. She started looking around for him from the rooftop. She saw the five soldiers she had been fighting joint up with seven others, who must have been the ones Kid Flash had been fighting before. If they were still up and moving, then what happened to Wally?

The archer looked up to Cheshire again, only to realize that the villainess had once again disappeared, as she was always inclined to do. This time, Artemis truly slapped the palm of her hand to her forehead. She should have known that Cheshire would vanish like that if she took her eyes off her.

_Get your act together, Artemis!_ She berated herself, leaping down from the rooftops and began searching for her partner.

She managed to follow the soldiers for a short distance, but they soon disappeared just as Cheshire did. Artemis certainly did not want to follow them by herself anyway. She needed to find Kid Flash.

There were signs of a struggle right next to the river. It looked like Kid Flash had fought the seven soldiers and won. It also appeared like someone else came at some point and attacked him. Artemis found a small dart on the ground, which she could tell was from a tranquilizer. If Kid Flash had been drugged…

There were indications that there was a small fight too, and it moved down the street. There were signs where something hit the ground multiple times, almost as if someone or something was jumping around. The only person Artemis knew who moved like that was Superboy, but he could jump further than this and left more damage when he landed. What on earth had happened here?

"Artemis to Kid Flash," she said, lifting her hand to her communicator in her ear. "Come in, Kid Flash."

"Artemis to Kid Flash. Come in, Kid Flash."

An echo was not what she wanted to hear. Following the sound, the blonde archer found a communicator on the side of road, closest to the river. The signs of a struggle also abruptly stopped at the river's edge. There was no sign of Kid Flash or the other attacker.

This was bad.

"Artemis to team," she said, her tone becoming more urgent. "Kid Flash is missing. He and I were separated. I found his communicator, and—"

"Artemis, calm down," Aqualad ordered calmly over the radio. "When was the last time you saw him?"

"We separated because we were too crowded in the Circe Industries lab," she reported. "He led seven of the twelve away, but it looks like someone else found him before I did. There're signs of a struggle, but no sign of Kid Flash…or the mystery person. I found his communicator, so I can't reach him that way."

"I'll have Miss Martian try to contact him telepathically," Aqualad told her. "Stay at your present location. Red Arrow and I are almost there. We will search for him."

"All right. I'm not moving," Artemis replied. "Artemis out."

She looked out to the river, then towards where she had found Kid Flash's communicator, and then back to the water again. What if he had been thrown in?

Against Aqualad's orders, Artemis started looking for any sign that Kid Flash had been drowned.

* * *

_Saint Charles River,_ _Quebec City, Quebec, Canada_

_December 9, 00:24 EST_

_Present time_

Kid Flash tried to open his eyes again when he felt someone starting to drag his body out of the water. The figure was wearing a large trench coat with a hood, and the bottom half of his face was covered. Kid Flash couldn't make out much more than that, his head hurt too much. He could feel something being pushed against the wound on his head, stopping the bleeding to some extent.

Whoever the person was, he pulled the speedster from the river and towards a pipe that must have led into the Quebec sewer system, if the smell was any indication. He could hear the person speaking to him, but he couldn't make out what the words were. He tried to respond back, but the words escaped him as he lost consciousness again.


	2. Patterns

A/N: So besides the normal disclaimer that I don't own Young Justice, I also would like to disclaim that I am not explosives expert. I don't know that much about bombs, how they're built and so forth. I'm mostly just using what little I do know and what I can research online. When Wally refers to a "dumb person's bomb" he's referring to me. So if what I have here is inaccurate, that would be why. On the other hand this is the DC universe. I could probably have made up an explosive chemical and gotten away with it (explosive Kryptonite anyone?).

* * *

_Quebec City Sewers, Quebec, Canada_

_December 9, 01:35 EST_

Wally groaned as he sluggishly opened his eyes. The light was very low, so it didn't hurt his eyes the way sudden bright light would. He realized that he was sitting on some kind of cot with a single blanket covering him. Putting his hand to his head, he could feel some sort of cloth bandage over his head injury. His head was pounding, and he could recall the fight with the cloaked man…how long ago was that?

Slowly sitting up, the blanket slid off his body as Kid Flash took a look at his surroundings. It was a relatively small brick room, about twenty feet square. The walls were damp and smelled of something very unpleasant. One side of the "room" was actually open to a passageway that led to what appeared to be a sewer system, complete with foul-smelling, green-tinged waterways. Wooden crates were piled up, and he could tell that some contained food while others were covered with other pieces of cloth so their contents were hidden from view. There was a small, wireless television sitting on top of one of the crates. In the center of the room, right next to the cot he was on, was a small fire that was kept in place with more bricks and rocks. There was a metal pipe hanging over the fire with a pot, which contained something that looked like porridge.

Sitting on one of the crates was a young man, wearing a dark, long trench coat with a hood covering his head. There was a scarf across the lower half of his face, covering his mouth and nose. He also had long gloves and heavy boots covering his hands and feet. The only parts of his body that weren't covered were his eyes, which were a deep brown with a haunted look to them. Wally figured that this must be the person who had saved him from the waters of the river.

Seeing Kid Flash sit up, the boy slowly stood up again, revealing a hunched posture, and walked cautiously towards the sitting hero.

"Hi," he said, his voice sounding a little like a chirp. "H-How are you feeling?"

"I'm all right," Kid Flash answered. "Where am I? Who're you?"

"I'm…J-Jacen. And we're in the Quebec sewers. Sorry about the smell," the boy answered. "I f-found you by the river. I brought you here to warm you up. Getting too w-wet can make you freeze."

"I'm dry now and not that cold," the speedster said, gesturing to the blanket and fire he was next too. "Thanks."

"Y-You're welcome," the kid stuttered. It was obvious he was very nervous. "You're Kid Flash, aren't you?"

"You know me?"

"I've seen you and the F-Flash on the box…" Jacen informed. He pointed to the small television in the room, which was just currently showing static. "When the box is working anyway. You're a h-hero."

Kid Flash gave him a smile. It was a little awkward to meet an admirer in a sewer, especially when he was as covered the way he was.

"Y-You hungry?" Jacen asked him. He took two bowls out of one of the crates and started to spoon the porridge from the pot into them. "It's not the best tasting, but it should help warm you up more."

Not wanting to be completely unappreciative (and he was still a little cold), Kid Flash nodded and took one of the bowls when it was handed to him. Jacen pulled the scarf off his face in order to eat, revealing a completely normal face. Why did he wear that scarf? Maybe due to the cold? It was December after all.

The porridge wasn't necessarily bad; in fact, it really just didn't have any taste to it at all. But it did have the effect of warming him up from the inside out as Jacen said it would, and a speedster was not going to refuse food. Once finished, Wally sat the bowl down and addressed Jacen again.

"What time is it?"

Jacen looked at the television, which had started to work again and showed the time. "One forty-five in the morning."

"How long have I been out?" he asked.

"Only about an hour since I found you," the boy replied. "S-So what brings you to Quebec C-City? Hero work? I thought you o-only worked in America."

"My team and I were investigating some explosions going on here," he told him. He didn't see any harm with telling the other boy a few details about his mission. "I was attacked and thrown into the river. It was a good thing you found me."

"I-It was nothing. Not like what you and the F-Flash do," Jacen stuttered. He paused for a moment before continuing. "The explosions at the computer places and research labs?"

"Exactly. You've heard about them?"

"It's all over the news," Jacen described. "Most of the b-bombings have been on labs focusing on human genetic research."

This was new information. "Human genetic research? The lab I was at worked on rat research."

"It's a p-partner company to a group working on improving the h-human body by changing their DNA," he continued.

"How is it being changed?" Kid Flash inquired. "How do you know all that?"

"I d-don't know details. Sorry," Jacen answered. "I just…I don't think we should mess with human genetics, actually…especially if the person doesn't want it."

Kid Flash saw Jacen's face become very serious as he said this. It was obviously a sore subject for him.

"There have also been attacks on pet stores, and things are being stolen. Do you know anything about that?"

Jacen blinked very slowly and was silent for a while. "No. N-Nothing."

Wally wasn't sure what to make of that, so he thought it best to let it go. He stood and stretched his arms out. He was sure that the tranquilizer he had been injected with had worn off by now, and even if the food wasn't very appetizing it did re-energize him. Although his head was still hurting a little, he didn't feel like he was about to pass out. And if he had been missing for at least an hour, the team was certainly looking for him. Feeling his ear, Wally realized that his communicator was missing. All in all, it was time to head out to the rendezvous point to meet up with the others again.

"Jacen?" he asked. The hooded boy looked at him. "I need to get back to my team. Thanks again for all your help."

"L-Like I said, it was nothing," Jacen repeated. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Pretty much," Kid Flash responded. Although he didn't think that Jacen was a threat, he didn't want to give up the location of the Bioship, just in case. That didn't mean he couldn't lead him to the surface at least. "How do I get aboveground again?"

"W-We're pretty far down, so it'll be a b-bit of a walk," Jacen described. "But I can l-lead you to the top if y-you'd like."

"That'd be great," Kid Flash answered. Jacen stood up and put the fire out, then grabbed a flashlight and headed towards the entrance where the waterways were. He left the food in the pot, making no move to cover it or put it away. Wally stared at him for a moment, and pointed to the porridge. "Aren't you going to do something about that?

"What? Oh, n-no," Jacen continued to stutter. "My f-friends will be by soon, and they'll heat it up again. R-Ready?"

Jacen led Kid Flash through the sewers, not saying a lot. Wally had noticed before that he had a hunched appearance, and now saw that he had a rather odd stride, almost as if it was painful for Jacen to walk. The two traveled a short while before coming to a wet, slime-covered ladder. Jacen stopped at the ladder and turned around to face Kid Flash.

"We're right b-beneath Victoria Park," he explained. "You can get to the surface from here."

"Thanks again, Jacen," Kid Flash repeated. He held out his hand to shake. Jacen looked at it for a minute before slowly placing his hand into Wally and giving a single shake. He pulled his hand back just as quickly.

"Are you g-going to be here long?"

"Just until my mission is complete."

"I'll probably see you on the news again?"

"Probably."

"Well, um, g-good luck."

"Thanks, Jacen."

With that, Kid Flash rushed up the ladder to the surface, closing the sewer lid behind him. He took a deep breath, glad to be away from the smell, before running off towards the rendezvous point.

_Better not keep the others waiting_, he thought as he dashed, northbound.

* * *

_Parc Chabanel, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada_

_December 9, 02:03 EST_

Artemis sat in one of the chairs in the Bioship, getting some sleep after her encounter with the ninja soldiers and Cheshire (who she was not entirely convinced was _not_ in league with the ones who attacked her and Wally). Zatanna had bandaged her injured back, and ordered her to rest while the rest of the team except for Robin left to go search for Kid Flash. Robin remained to look after Artemis and in case the speedster did manage to return to the rendezvous point, and Aqualad had forbidden her from leaving due to the laceration on her back. She did not think it was that bad of an injury. Honestly, she had endured worse under Sportmaster's training…not that she was about to openly admit to that.

Still, she sat in the chair and tried to sleep…

The sun began to rise, letting beams of sunlight through the Bioship windows inside the cockpit. Artemis groaned as the sunlight hit her eyes, blocking the beams with her hand. She was not ready for it to be morning yet.

As her eyes adjusted, she squinted towards to windows to see Wally leaning against the seat in front of her, arms crossed and a smile across his face.

"Sleep well, Artemis?" he said. "Looks like you survived."

"Wally, you're back," the blonde returned, smiling back. She sat up a little straighter. "I was…worried. Are you okay? You managed to escape?"

"Yeah, nothing Kid Flash can't handle," Wally replied rather boldly. He got up from his lean and knelt down in front of her. "But are you okay? You were hurt?"

Artemis was confused by the question for a moment before Wally's hands brushed up against the bandages that covered her waist, from where her back had been dressed. She blushed at his actions, jumping a little when he touched her abdomen and reaching down to stop his movement. Wally looked up at her.

"Does that hurt?" Wally asked.

"No, I'm fine," Artemis answered. Wally smirked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Really, it's nothing."

"Can you blame me?" he said. "I was worried about you too."

"…You were?"

Kid Flash rose from the ground and leaned in to her. "Of course. I left you alone to deal with the bad guys."

"You were leading some of them away," she argued quietly. "You weren't—"

"We can't go five minutes without arguing, can we?" the red-head teased, leaning further in.

"Wally—"

Artemis didn't get a chance to argue anymore, because Wally had pressed his lips to her in a gentle kiss. He paused for just a moment, and then leaned in to resume kissing her, this time deepening it as he held her hips in place with his hands. Artemis returned the kiss, one hand reaching over his shoulder and the other moving to run through his bright red hair. Wally's movement soon began to speed up, as Artemis would have expected from a speedster. He just kept going, lightly biting on her lower lip, until Artemis felt breathless.

Wally broke away a few moments later. Artemis had her eyes closed, but she could tell he was still smiling.

"Did I rock your world?"

"You arrogant, little…" the archer said with a playful smile, and opened her eyes.

It was still dark outside. The sun had yet to rise, and the stars still sparkled in the sky. …And there was no sign of Wally at all.

She had dreamt the whole thing. Artemis groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. What on earth was wrong with her? She _never_ had thoughts or dreams like this usually. Sure, she had some fantasies during the time she had a crush on Superboy, but they never went that far.

"Dammit, Artemis, you are completely off your game!" she hissed to herself.

"Artemis?" the voice of Robin called out. The masked boy entered the cockpit after hearing her speak. "You all right?"

"Yeah, fine," Artemis answered, standing up. "Any news?"

"Nothing yet. The others are still looking."

"It's been an hour and a half since I last saw him."

"I know you're worried, Artemis, but trust me," Robin comforted. "I've known Kid Flash longer than any of us. He's a survivor."

Artemis huffed a bit, but grinned slightly. "Try and get traught, right?"

"Exactly."

The Bioship entrance opened up as Robin was saying this, and Miss Martian and Zatanna climbed in. The two heroes without powers looked at them, hopeful, but they just shook their heads.

"No sign of him," Zatanna reported. "How are you feeling, Artemis?"

"I feel fine," replied the archer. She turned to M'gann. "Any contact at all?"

"Not yet," Miss Martian replied. "I'm really starting to get worried. The last thing I want to find is a body."

"Don't talk like that," Artemis warned.

"I didn't mean—"

"Everyone, stay whelmed," Robin ordered. "Artemis, you should sit back down."

"I said I'm fine," she disputed. She was about to speak again when she saw M'gann put a hand to her forehead. Artemis leaned in a little.

"Perfect timing. Kid Flash just contacted me telepathically," Miss Martian said. "He's okay and heading this way. He should be arriving right about—"

The sound of whoosh of wind and the skid of speedster sneakers flew through the air as Kid Flash appeared in front of the group.

M'gann grinned. "—Now."

"Hey everyone," the red-head said, giving a small wave. Artemis quickly stepped forward towards him, but stopped herself. "Sorry I took so long."

"What happened?" Miss Martian asked. She lifted hand to his bandaged head. "Is your head all right?"

"Don't worry about me, Miss M," Kid Flash answered. "I got patched up."

"Still, better get that checked out," Zatanna said. She turned to leave the room towards med bay, while Miss Martian headed towards the pilot's seat to sit down. "I'll get the first aid kit."

"Robin to Aqualad," Robin called into his communicator. "Kid Flash is back at the Bioship. He's a little beat up, but all right."

"Acknowledged," Aqualad stated. "Red Arrow, Superboy and I will return shortly."

With the rest of the team occupied, Kid Flash and Artemis were left alone. Artemis watched the ginger for a moment, as he seemed to be looking anywhere but at her. She closed her eyes for a moment before walking up to him. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but she could tell he was trying to keep his face blank.

"Wally?"

"Yeah?"

"About before…our fight?" she began. "I'm sorry."

Wally's face almost immediately softened. "Me too. Sorry."

Artemis held a hand out to him, exactly as she had when she first joined the team. Kid Flash took the hand; however, unlike last time, he shook it more firmly.

* * *

It took a little more than half an hour for Kid Flash and Artemis to relay their report to the rest of the team regarding the research performed at the lab, what had been either stolen or destroyed, and their encounter with the soldiers at Circe Industries. Kid Flash summarized his meeting with Jacen and how the other boy told him that Circe Industries was partnered with an unknown group who wanted to enhance human performance by altering the human genome. The identity of this organization was a mystery, however. Artemis did not mention her encounter with Cheshire. Although she knew it was a big deal, she didn't want a chance of her secret getting out and it didn't seem like it was directly important to their current mission.

Once the pair had finished their report, Aqualad turned his attention to the other members of the team.

"Robin, Superboy, did you find anything at the computer factory?" he inquired.

"Most of the equipment stolen was related to computer timers and wiring," Robin explained. "The color-coded variety was the most popular it would seem."

"There were also many power supply units missing from the factory's inventory," Superboy added. "Most were low voltage units, probably used to power the timers that were taken."

"Some of the diagrams for putting the wiring together with the power units were also lost," the Boy Wonder nodded at Superboy and then went on. "Clearly, the people taking these materials didn't know enough about computers to put them together on their own. They needed an instruction manual."

Aqualad looked to be deep in thought for a moment before giving his own report.

"Red Arrow and I deduced which chemicals were taken from the chemical plant," he said. He gestured to the red archer. "Red, will you please bring up the diagram."

Red Arrow inserted a flash drive into the computer hub at the front of the cockpit and pressed a few buttons on the front keyboard. A screen popped up, revealing the structure of a chemical compound.

"The compound consisted of an organic material made up of nitrates and oxygen," Red Arrow described. He pointed to the structure. "Some other chemicals were taken too, but most of it was this."

"Nitroglycerin," Robin whispered, recognizing the compound almost immediately.

"What is it?" Miss Martian asked.

"It's a colorless, explosive liquid," Kid Flash clarified. "Quite dangerous."

"So, what uses nitroglycerin, computer wiring, timers and a power cell?" Zatanna wondered.

"Together, they could make up the components of a chemical bomb," Robin supplied.

"So these people are stealing the components to make a bomb, and then blowing the sources of those components up?" Superboy summarized.

"Maybe they were just trying to get rid of any evidence," Red Arrow thought aloud.

"Or maybe they were accidents," Kid Flash debated. "Nitroglycerin is very sensitive. As little as bumping it wrong could set it off."

"Or throwing it to the ground," Superboy offered. "Or maybe having something heavy land on it."

"Something heavy…" Aqualad muttered. "Perhaps setting the timer with the power cell to release a large object to fall on the nitroglycerin to make it explode would create a simple bomb."

"Are chemical bombs usually built that way?" Zatanna questioned.

"Not really, but think about it," Artemis interjected. "If these people don't know how to set up a computer correctly, there's a chance they don't know how to correctly make a bomb."

"Exactly," Kid Flash agreed. "This would be a 'dumb person's' bomb, so to speak."

"That leads us to our last investigation," Aqualad said, changing the subject. "Miss Martian and Zatanna. Did you find anything at the animal food storage facility that may be related to these findings?"

"Nothing. It looks like it was just robbery," M'gann testified. "There was no damage done to the facilities besides evidence of someone breaking in. Nothing suggested a bomb or other explosives at all."

"What was taken?"

"Hay, bird seed, dried insects, lettuce, and liquid meals," Zatanna told him. "The only thing I can think of is that our thieves have pet birds or some other type of herbivore, and obviously that's a stretch."

"Dried insects?" Kid Flash repeated. "Why would someone steal those?"

"I have no idea," replied Zatanna.

"So no pattern has emerged," Aqualad concluded. "We are no closer to an answer than Batman was."

"Wally, your friend mentioned that the bombings are against people who are manipulating human DNA, right? And that he didn't agree with that?" Miss Martian asked. Kid Flash nodded on both counts. "Maybe the person or people behind these attacks feel the same way."

"But take it a step too far," Superboy finished for her.

A beeping sound coming from Red Arrow's belt interrupted their conversation. He pushed a button on his belt, activating the police radio scanner he had built into it. A voice of a Canadian policeman spoke over the radio, occasionally interrupted by static.

"All units, tip-off at Dawley Labs," the policeman called out. "Five suspects sighted heading into the building. Three scientists still reported inside. Requesting back-up for potential dangerous or hostage situation."

"You have your scanner set on a Canadian frequency?" Aqualad questioned the older archer.

"Thought it'd be useful in case something came up," Red Arrow defended. "Such as this."

"What's Dawley Labs?" Robin wondered, bringing up his holographic computer from his gloves. He typed a few words to search, and read the results. "It's a research rat breeding center. It provides rats for experimentation purposes."

"Like the kind performed at Circe Industries?" Artemis and Kid Flash said simultaneously.

"Well," Superboy sighed. "There's your pattern."


	3. Covert mission, huh?

_Dawley Labs, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada_

_December 9, 03:26 EST_

Superboy was watching the inside of the lab with his infrared vision, seeing who was inside and where. The building itself was five stories high, taller than any of the labs or other facilities that had been targeted except for Circe Industries. Most of the windows were dark, but three separate rooms were still alit, possibly where some workers were still laboring away at some experiments or paperwork (why they would be working at this hour was a mystery to him). Along with the heat signatures of the three scientists, there were five forms moving about the different floors and rooms. It was strange to see their heat signatures though. They were a little far away, since Superboy was scouting from another rooftop across the street, but some of them walked oddly and a few of them looked like they had extra limbs. Superboy frowned.

"**There are five people inside now,"** Superboy reported through Miss Martian's psychic link. "**Three are heading for each of the scientists on the first, second and fourth floors. Two are headed for the third floor. They look like they're carrying something, but I can't tell what."**

Dawley Labs was already surrounded by policemen and cars, although they remained hidden from view in alleyways and no one had entered the building yet. Aqualad had approached the sergeant in charge of the squad there, and shared a little of the information they had gathered during the past night. He had been willing to wait for the team to do their work, but he had given them just one hour to deal with the problem before he sent his officers in. Agreeing to the compromise, Aqualad planned out what to do.

"**We need to intercept the ones near the scientists, and get them out,"** Aqualad concluded. "**Kid Flash and Red Arrow, take the one on the first floor. Artemis and Zatanna, the one on the second floor, and Miss Martian and Superboy take the one on the fourth floor. Robin, you and I will head to the third floor. I have a feeling they are the ones with the makeshift bomb."**

Superboy looked up at the fourth floor as one of the figures approached the one sitting at a desk, presumably working at a computer. Miss Martian could get up there quickly by flying, but Superboy would need a window to jump to…or he could fly to it. He pulled out the Shields he received from Lex Luthor, but then paused. This was not really a situation that called for their use. He didn't have many of them left either, and he did not look forward to the day when he might have to ask Luthor for more.

Superboy sighed as he followed Miss Martian to find a window to the fourth floor they could sneak into.

* * *

Artemis and Zatanna rushed up the stairs to the second floor of the lab, Kid Flash and Red Arrow having sped off in another direction on the ground floor. The pair headed in the direction of the lab worker that Superboy had located, on the other side of the floor from the staircase. Artemis had normal arrow ready. She did not want to be caught by surprise by one of those soldiers she had met earlier that night, and she had a strong feeling that they were the ones behind this current attack. Artemis had to remind herself that revenge against them was not what she was here for. Aqualad's orders were to find the scientist and get him out.

Whoever had entered the lab had found the researcher before they did. He stood next to the employee, who was still sitting at his computer, and speaking very rapidly about something that Artemis couldn't make out. He was shorter than Artemis was, but it was hard to determine his actual height because he was slouching. He wore a long trench coat, the hood over his head concealing most of his head. A scarf wove around his neck on the inside of the coat. He also had gloves and boots, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other every few seconds. The boy had a young looking face with the exception of deep brown eyes that were looking increasingly nervous.

Artemis leapt into the room, pulling the arrow taut in her bow. Zatanna was right behind her, her arms raised in preparation to cast a spell. The boy and the scientist looked up at the noise in shock.

"Don't move," Artemis warned. Disobeying, the boy stepped back but lifted his arms to his head, showing that he was unarmed. The researcher stood up too. "Stay right where you are."

"Sir, we have reason to believe that there is a bomb in the building," Zatanna said to the doctor. She walked over to him and gently took his arm. "We have to leave before it goes off."

"I know, this boy was just telling me," the doctor said, pointing to the cloaked man. "He was trying to get me to leave."

"I wasn't doing a-anything else," the stuttered, his arms shaking a little. "I swear."

"We'll see. Doctor, come with us," Artemis instructed, not lowering her bow from the boy. "Keep your hands up and walk. No sudden moves."

The boy scuttled over to the door, Artemis forcing him to exit first. Zatanna took up the rear with the scientist as the group returned to the stairway and descended it. Artemis wanted to keep the boy in view. She had a feeling that he was hiding something. He couldn't be much younger than her; how would a boy his age know about the bomb? It was too suspicious.

There was yelling and a banging sound coming from the first floor as the group reached it. At the bottom of the stairs, there was the sound of glass breaking as someone was thrown from the other room. Another hooded form lay on the ground, groaning from the impact. This man did not wear a cloak, but he did have long trousers, dark sneakers and a long-sleeve, black sweater. His gloves were fingerless, revealing sharp, black nails.

The man sat on the floor, and gathered himself just in time to see Red Arrow leap towards him, pointing a sharp arrow at him.

"Ian!" the shorter boy Artemis had been guarding yelled. Red Arrow and the older hooded man, Ian apparently, looked up at him. "No!"

With that exclamation, the boy swung his right arm in the air, throwing some sort of blue projectile at Red Arrow's bow and knocking it from his hands. The red archer snarled at the boy as his target jumped up and headed for the nearest window.

"Jacen, get the scientists out!" Ian demanded, breaking the window opening and starting to climb out.

"Where are you going?"

"The others might be in trouble, and we still have one more person to get," Ian said, now outside. "I'll climb up to them. You get out while you can!"

With than, Ian made a huge jump from the window. Red Arrow followed him, and could only watch as he seemed to grab onto the side of the structure, climb up to the third floor and enter through another window. Red Arrow turned to the others.

"Get the scientists and that kid out of here," he ordered the others. He jumped out of the window himself and fired a zip-line arrow two floors up. "Pursuing the subject."

"You heard him," Artemis shouted to Zatanna and the lab worker next to her. As the sorceress and scientist headed for the exit, she turned to the boy. "I told you not to move!"

"I was j-just—"

"Jacen?" a voice called out. It was Kid Flash, accompanied by the researcher he and Red Arrow were supposed to rescue. The red-head stared at the boy he had met earlier. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"K-Kid Flash? Oh no," Jacen whimpered. "No, no, you weren't supposed to be here!"

"You knew about this?" Kid Flash interrogated.

"You know this guy?" Artemis barked to the speedster.

Their conversation was interrupted by a scream coming from the staircase above. Another lab employee was running for her life. She took one look at the group, screamed again, and rushed outside. They all stared for a moment before coming to their senses.

"Well, that's one less person to worry about," Artemis mocked. "Kid, get the doctors and this, um, kid out of here. I'm going back up for the others."

"B-But what about—" Jacen began to stutter out.

"You've got some explaining to do, Jacen," Kid Flash said, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him towards the exit. He addressed the scientists, telling them to follow as well.

As Kid Flash worked on getting the three others out of Dawley Labs, Artemis spun around and head back up the steps. At least she was getting a lot of exercise tonight.

* * *

By the time Aqualad and Robin reached the third floor, utilizing Robin's grappling gun to swing there, the two perpetrators on the floor had left.

In the center of the room was the only sign that anyone had even been there. There was a digital timer sitting on top of a desk that had been dragged to the middle of the lab. It was attached to a block and tackle, with an old brick acting as the block. It looked like the timer would pull on the release of the tackle when it ran out of time, the brick would be dropped. Beneath the brick was a flask filled with a colorless liquid. The timer said about twelve minutes left.

"That must be the nitroglycerin that was stolen," Robin concluded. "Along with the timer and wiring."

"Can you disarm it?" Aqualad asked, and then chuckled a bit. "Or should I even ask?"

"The best way to disarm it is to do this," Robin joked as he picked the brick up from the tackle. He didn't need to do anything with the timer. "Like Kid Flash said, it's a dumb person's bomb."

"Barely enough to qualify as a bomb," Aqualad mentioned. "I have not seen any sign of the intruders. Perhaps they have already left."

"What are you doing?" someone called out from behind the two.

Aqualad and Robin turned around to see two people standing by the doorway. One was taller and obviously male, while the other was slightly shorter and female. Both also wore hoods and covered their bodies with clothing, except for the woman who wore no shoes. Her feet were covered with some sort of hard material, although Aqualad couldn't tell what it was exactly. The woman looked over the two heroes at the contraption they just sabotaged.

"Gabe, they've messed with the nitro," she whispered, but Robin and Aqualad both still heard her.

"Were you the ones who made this bomb?" Robin questioned. "And the others that have been going off this past month?"

"You don't understand," the one called Gabe hissed. "These people are working on something horrible. They can't be allowed to continue their research."

"That does not excuse stealing and blowing up buildings," Aqualad debated. "There are people here, and may have been in the other facilities as well. How many people have you hurt or killed?"

"No one!" the woman declared. "We make sure the buildings are empty. We made sure the doctors in here are out by the time the bomb goes off."

This statement was poorly timed. There was a scream, and the group turned in time to see a scientist practically jump down from the flight of steps and continue on to the next floor down. There were also sounds of fighting coming from the fourth floor.

"Gabe! Naomi!" came another scream, this time the voice being of a young girl. "Christina's squads are here!"

"Grace?!" Naomi cursed and turned to jump up the steps.

Gabe began to head that way as well, but stopped. With his back turned to them, Aqualad noticed that he had some sort of bulge coming from his lower back, as if something was there. He turned his head back to address Aqualad and Robin.

"If you really want to stop criminals, you'll follow me."

Gabe followed Naomi up the stairs. Robin and Aqualad looked each for a split second before following. One the fourth floor was Miss Martian, Superboy, and another concealed form. This last one was clearly a younger girl, probably around Robin's age. There were multiple spines coming out of her back, which were black and white in color.

Superboy was holding off two soldiers while Miss Martian was trying to levitate chairs and tables and fling them at four more. Robin threw two of his batarangs at the masked militia that Superboy was fighting, while Aqualad formed his water-bearers into whips and knocked down some of the soldiers that Miss Martian was dealing with.

"These must be the people Artemis and Kid Flash dealt with before," said Robin.

"Yes," Aqualad agreed with another crack of his water ships. "They fit the description perfectly."

Grace pulled some of the spines on her back out and threw them like spears towards the enemy. Her aim was true, and afterwards she jumped behind Gabe. He gave a few punches and kicks to the soldiers, while Naomi turned and kicked three of them in the chest. She continued to kick, and one time she missed and hit the wall. Her foot left an indentation in the shape of a horseshoe. Robin saw this and his eyes widened. What in the world?

Gabe jumped in front of Grace to block the path of another fighter. Superboy jumped in front of him, and knocked the enemy out with a single punch. With all the foes unconscious, the Kryptonian faced the man who was apparently the leader of the cloaked group. He grabbed him by the collar of his coat and held him up.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Superboy screamed out. "Who are you and who are these people?"

"**Superboy, calm down,"** Miss Martian pleaded to him in their minds. **"Now is not the time."**

The Martian girl was right. Six more ninjas swung into the labs using ropes, and the six that had been previously knocked out suddenly stood up, as if nothing had happened to them. Gabe, who had been hanging limply in Superboy's hold, started to struggle.

"These guys don't die," he informed. "We need to get out of here now!"

"He's right. We are outnumbered," Aqualad concurred with the other leader. "We need to retreat now and regroup. The police outside can help."

Superboy reluctantly dropped the other boy to his feet. The full group of seven headed for the exit downstairs. Once they reached the third floor, Aqualad noticed another figure working on the makeshift bomb again. He was replacing the brick on the tackle and resetting the timer. The Atlantean entered the room, while the rest of the group continued on down the next flight.

Aqualad must have made some kind of sound, because the boy at the bomb spun around and hissed, almost like a cat. He held up his hands, which had long, sharp, black nails. Aqualad took out his water-bearers and solidified them into swords.

"I would not do that if I were you," Aqualad cautioned him, slowly circling the other boy.

"I know exactly what I'm doing," the hooded one disputed, circling around the other way. "I made this thing, after all."

"So you _are_ responsible for the bombings around Quebec City."

"We have good reason for it. You wouldn't understand."

"Your friend said the same thing. Just step away from the apparatus and we can talk this over."

"There is no talking. You don't know," the boy argued. "Jacen and Grace, our kids, have been through more than you can imagine."

"This is not the way to handle it though."

By this point, Aqualad had switched positions so that he was next to the nitroglycerin and the boy had his back to stairway. The boy was about to respond again when he was suddenly bound up by a set of bolas. His arms were trapped against his body and his legs were trapped together. He swayed for a moment and then fell over on his face. Behind him, Red Arrow stood, his bow set as he just released an arrow. Aqualad nodded at the archer before turning to remove the brick from the bomb again.

"I do not have the experience with explosives to handle the nitroglycerin," the Atlantean said. "We better leave that to the authorities. Take this boy out. There are more above us."

Red Arrow nodded. He grabbed the struggling boy and hoisted him over his shoulder. The two headed down the stairs, where the rest of the team plus Gabe, Naomi, Grace and one other cloaked boy were all fighting more enemies. Gabe, who had just jump-kicked one opponent into a wall, spotted his fourth companion being carried by Red Arrow and rushed over.

"Ian!" he cried. "What happened?!"

"I was trying to fix the bomb," Ian explained, twisting his head to look at Gabe. "They wrecked it again."

"Don't you people get it?!" Gabe hollered, suddenly leaving the fight and heading back up the set of steps, once again.

"He's going to reset the bomb!" Red Arrow yelled, dropping Ian to the ground with a thud and following Gabe back up.

"Why does everyone keep taking the stairs?" Robin exclaimed, sending out more batarangs to the adversaries.

"I've no idea," Artemis complained, sending out more of her explosive trick arrows. "This has become so chaotic, I've no clue what's going on anymore."

"Everyone out, in case the bomb does go off," Aqualad directed.

"You can't let that guy with the bow ruin the bomb!" Grace yelled, using one of the quills that was one her back to cut Ian free of the bolas.

"No we can't!" Ian declared. Once he was free from Red Arrow's bolas he jumped up and headed for the next floor. Grace and Naomi were right behind him, kicking and punching their way through the soldiers and Miss Martian to reach the flight of steps.

Aqualad cursed and followed. Robin was right. Why were they all taking the stairs?

Back on the third floor, Aqualad joined the fight against twelve masked warriors with Red Arrow and Gabe's team. Gabe was trying to get to the bomb mechanism while Ian, Grace and Naomi were trying to hold off the enemy. Red Arrow was shooting various arrows everywhere, although he avoided any incendiary or explosive arrows for fear of setting off the nitroglycerin with heat. Aqualad fought off three of the twelve, but every time he believed he knocked one of them unconscious, he would just stand up again a few moments later.

"I told you, these guys don't die!" Gabe repeated, carrying a brick in his hand and finally reaching the nitroglycerin.

He didn't get the chance to do anything with the brick, however. A larger soldier, wearing armor that was greener in color as opposed to the blacks and browns of the others, knocked him away with a swing of her sword. The attack created a large laceration down his neck and chest, bleeding profusely. Naomi caught him as he reeled back.

"How convenient," the one in green announced. "I can deal with all of you at once."

She pulled out a box that slid open. A matchbox. Pulling a match out she struck it against the box, lighting it on fire. She held it over the flask filled with nitroglycerin. Aqualad's eyes widened.

"**Everyone!"** He commanded through the mind link. "**Get out of the lab now!"**

His order was followed by Gabe screaming his own demand. "It's going to blow! Everyone out!"

Aqualad ran over to grab Red Arrow, who had run towards the exit. He pushed the archer towards the stairs and turned around. He saw Gabe's group heading for the windows as the foe in green dropped the match. Aqualad jumped down from the top of the steps, covering Red Arrow's body with his own as the nitroglycerin ignited.

* * *

Kid Flash and Zatanna rushed out of Dawley Labs with Jacen and the two scientists. The panicked researchers ran straight to the police cars that were waiting in a nearby alley, while Kid Flash had to pull Jacen just to get him to move. The boy wanted to go back inside.

"My friends are in there," Jacen cried. "I have to help them!"

"My team will help them and get them out of there, don't worry," Kid Flash comforted him, although it was obvious that he was at least a little angry. He turned to one of the Canadian policemen and practically threw Jacen towards him. "Officer, can you watch him for me? I'll be right back."

"No!" Jacen declared. He pulled his hands out of the police officers, losing his gloves in the process and sprinted back into the lab. He hobbled the whole way, but was back inside in no time.

"Dammit, nevermind," Kid Flash uttered. "Zatanna, stay here. I'm going back in."

"If you think I'm staying when he didn't," the sorceress argued as she more slowly followed Jacen back. "Then you have another thing coming."

Kid Flash didn't argue this with her this time, instead rushing back inside. Zatanna was right on his heels, although of course she reentered more slowly.

The fight had remained mostly on the second floor. Miss Martian, Superboy, Robin and Artemis were assisted by three others who wore garb similar to Jacen, and by the shouting of orders and warnings he learned their names were Gabe, Naomi and Grace. The enemies there were the same as the ones who had attacked him and Artemis just hours ago. Kid Flash kept an eye out for the one he fought alone, the one who had drugged him before, but he did not recognize any of the ones in the room. He sped around, punching and kicking as many of the soldiers as he could. Overall, it was not going well. There must have been at least twenty opponents on the floor alone, and who knew how many more there were!

Kid Flash specifically tried to watch Zatanna's back. If she was attacked in the middle of an incantation, not only would she be hurt but she would lose her spell. Robin of course was able to hold his own, although it was a little annoying when he released one of his smoke pellets. Superboy was punching as normally and Miss Martian stayed next to him, throwing opponents around as well as anything that was not bolted to the ground. He grinned nervously; big surprise about why she was staying close to the half-Kryptonian.

He noticed that Artemis had taken to staying close to him too, guarding his own back. Was she still trying to make up for the argument earlier?

With a glance across the room at the one mystery kid that wasn't really a mystery to him, he also realized that Jacen knew more about fighting than Kid Flash previously believed he did. He certainly didn't move quickly, but he made it up with some kind of projectile that he threw from his arms, ripping his trench coat sleeves with every attack. He managed to get a closer look at one of the projectiles that landed closer to him, which had embedded itself into the concrete wall. At least in appearance they looked like feathers, but they were hard to the touch and sharpened at one end, almost as if they were knives or arrows. It must be the same thing he saw Jacen use to knock Red Arrow's bow out of his hands earlier. Where was he getting those feathers?

Jacen spotted Kid Flash inspecting his projectiles, and bit his lip when the hero looked at him.

"You _really_ have a lot of explaining to do," Kid Flash insisted.

"I _can_ explain everything," Jacen reasoned. "I just—"

He was interrupted by Aqualad and Red Arrow coming down from the floor above. Red Arrow had a boy swung over his shoulder. Kid Flash recognized him as the person Jacen had called Ian. He was bound up with some bolas, which he attributed to one of Red's trick arrows.

"Ian!" Gabe, the tallest of the other group, bellowed when he saw Red Arrow enter. "What happened?!"

Ian struggled in Red Arrow's grasp. "I was trying to fix the bomb. They wrecked it again."

"Don't you people get it?!" groaned Gabe. With that, he abandoned the fight and returned to the staircase.

"He's going to reset the bomb!" Red Arrow cursed and followed him, dropping Ian to the ground in the process.

"Why does everyone keep taking the stairs?" Robin wondered, fending off more of the masked combatants.

"I've no idea," Artemis said, exasperation clear in her tone. "This has become so chaotic, I've no clue what's going on anymore."

"Everyone out, in case the bomb does go off," Aqualad decreed.

Kid Flash saw Grace grab one of the spines attached to her back and pull it out, grimacing as she did so. She headed for Ian and began to cut the bolas restraining him with it. She looked up at Aqualad, pleading.

"You can't let that guy with the bow ruin the bomb!" she declared.

"No we can't!" yelled Ian.

He threw off the remains of his restraints and then bolted after Red Arrow. He, rather gracefully, bypassed the soldiers. Naomi and Grace followed him. Naomi gave another swift kick to two enemies and Grace knocked Miss Martian aside to reach the stairway. Aqualad followed quickly after. Jacen attempted to follow as well, but was blocked by more of the ninja soldiers.

"Why is everyone always leaving me behind?!" he complained.

Miss Martian recovered from Grace's attack and stood again. **"There has got to be a better way to do this."**

"**So much for a 'covert' mission, huh?"** Kid Flash attempted to joke. At this point, however, no one was laughing.

They just kept coming! What had once been twenty had increased to twenty-five, and all the ones that had been knocked unconscious kept getting up. Artemis recalled the ninjas that Cheshire had killed without a second thought. Those ones had also gotten up without any sign of damage, even the one that Cheshire had stabbed through the back with her sword.

These soldiers were obviously in the same league, but what gave them such power? If they were simply invulnerable like Superman or Superboy were, Cheshire's sword would not have been able to pierce their skin. Artemis was also not a believer in zombies, so she ruled that possibility out (although, she wasn't really a believer in ghosts before Greta either). What else could explain this? Either something supernatural or robots, and at this point she couldn't rule out one or the other.

And yet more kept coming! It was never-ending!

"**Everyone!" ** Aqualad commanded. "**Get out of the lab now!"**

The tone in Aqualad's thought voice did not allow for any argument or questioning. Robin unceremoniously grabbed Zatanna around the waist and headed for the nearest window, using his grappling hook to grab onto the opposite building. The pair was through the window in a hurry. Kid Flash picked up Artemis bridal style and offered his back to Jacen.

"Hop on."

"What?"

"Now!" His tone was deadly serious, and Jacen leapt onto his back and wrapped his arms and legs around the speedster before Kid Flash took off in a run. Artemis looked over her shoulder to see Superboy and Miss Martian right behind them. The speedster was almost to the first floor entranceway to the exit when a sharp bang went off.

Feeling and hearing the walls and ceiling start to crumble, Kid Flash practically tossed Artemis and Jacen through the doorway and outside as the archway above him collapsed.

* * *

M'gann put a hand to her forehead, her head pounding from the sound of the nitroglycerin going off. A slab of concrete had slammed against her head when she and Superboy had been trying to get out, and she remembered that she had crashed to the floor from it. She could also recall Superboy throwing his body over hers as the building collapsed.

The Martian slowly opened her eyes, and her sight was instantly filled with a beautiful shade of blue that she recognized as Superboy's eye color. He was in fact hovering over her, his back and legs supporting the remains of the rat breeding lab and keeping it off her. Superboy groaned, but shifted his back so that some of the rubble fell away, and he sighed.

"**Are you all right, M'gann?"** He thought to her.

"**Yes, I'm fine,"** she responded. She gave his a quick peck on the lips. "**Thanks to you."**

Superboy smiled and started shifting again. "**Hold on. I'm going to break through this."**

With more shifting and a few punches Superboy managed to get the debris off his back, which was quite a miracle considering that half of a five story building just plummeted on top of him. Once the two of them were free they stood, and Miss Martian brushed the debris off her uniform.

She looked around. Half of the Dawley Labs structure had been blown up and the damage was widespread, with some of the smaller pieces having reached across the street and embedding into the surrounding houses. Parts of the lab ruins were also on fire. The Canadian police that had been in hiding before made an appearance, followed by ambulances and fire trucks. The area around the remains of the lab was quickly filled with Canadian authorities of various levels.

"Superboy! Miss Martian!" the voice of Robin called out to them. The boy matching the voice appeared, unscathed, along with Zatanna. "Are you all right?"

"We're fine," Superboy commented. He took a breath. "Any sign of the others?"

"Not yet," answered the Boy Wonder. "I was about to go looking."

"Over here!" came a soft voice.

Robin turned and ran towards it to see Artemis, sitting in some lab remains with the boy he now recognized as Jacen. Neither of them looked horribly injured, although Artemis had a few bad bruises on her arms and head. Jacen had a large cut on his left shoulder, but otherwise was okay.

"We can bandage that up," Robin said to Jacen, looking over the laceration. He smiled shyly at him. "Any sign of Kid Flash, Aqualad or Red Arrow?"

"I'm here," another voice croaked, this one male. Kid Flash was trapped beneath two stone arches from the waist to his feet. He was, of course unsuccessfully, trying to push the stones off him. The others rushed over to him. "I'm fine. I'm not hurt, I'm just stuck."

"Let me," Superboy said.

With that, he lifted the larger of the two stones. Once most of Kid Flash's legs were, Robin and Artemis grabbed each of his arms and pulled the rest of him out from the wreckage. As he had said, he wasn't badly injured.

"Are…are you all right?" Jacen asked quietly.

"Yeah, Jacen," he answered the boy. "I'm fine."

"I've still got a link to Aqualad and Red Arrow," Miss Martian reported. "They're alive, but trapped under some rubble. We need to clear it to get them out."

"Hey!" yet another voice yelled out. It was the sergeant of the Canadian police force, running over to the group with a number of his officers. "I knew I shouldn't have left this to you kids. What happened?"

"There's a lot to explain," Zatanna uttered.

"**Tell him that we will explain everything once Red Arrow and I are out," **Aqualad requested through the link. **"And that we are going to call the Justice League and tell them what has occurred."**

Robin relayed the message, taking temporary leadership while Aqualad was unavailable. The sergeant nodded in agreement. In an instant he spotted Jacen still standing next to Kid Flash. He flicked his wrist towards him.

"Place him under arrest," he commanded. Two of the officers approached the boy, who slowly began to step back.

"Wait, y-you don't understand," he protested as the officers grabbed him, pulled his hand behind his back and handcuffed him. "This isn't w-what you think."

"This is exactly what I think it is," the sergeant contended, crossing his arms. "You and your friends are going to pay for the damage you've done."

Kid Flash watched the fear shining in Jacen's eyes. The boy started struggling, hoping to break free and flee. No, this couldn't happen. Kid Flash wanted answers, and Jacen owed them to him. He knew that if Jacen got free now, he would never see him again.

"Stop Jacen!" he demanded, voice low. The other froze and looked at the hero, his mouth open as if to speak, but nothing came out. "We need to know what happened in this city and why. You will go with these officers now, understand?"

Jacen looked at him for just a moment more before lowering his gaze, his struggling ceased. The rest of the team just watched the interaction between the two, curious.

"Can you keep him in custody for now?" Kid Flash requested of the sergeant. "We'll want to question him later."

"I'll take him down to the station for processing," the sergeant replied. "You can come anytime."

"It probably won't be until we've spoken with the Justice League," Robin told him.

"I hope that's soon," said the sergeant. He nodded again to the group and then walked away. Jacen kept his gaze to the ground as the officers led him to one of the police cars. "I'm going to help with those fires. Let me know when the League gets here."

The team took a moment to breathe. That had to be one of the most frenzied missions they ever had, and to be honest they still had more questions than answers.

"What a mess," Robin said. "Come on. Let's go get Aqualad and Red Arrow."

"Like you said, so much for a 'covert'," Artemis joshed with Kid Flash as they followed. Kid Flash merely smiled.

Superboy stayed to the back of the group. He patted his pocket, feeling the case that contained his Shields. He had not used one during the many fights that had just occurred. There were two reasons for that. One, he did not have an opportunity to put one on without someone seeing, and thus blowing his secret about his meeting with Lex Luthor. And two, he was pretty sure that the abilities he would have gotten from them would not have helped. The lab rooms had been too crowded for flying; even M'gann had trouble maneuvering around. Heat vision would also have been a problem. Superboy knew how unstable nitroglycerin could be, from both his genomorph "education" and from Kid Flash's warning earlier, and the extra heat from the heat vision may have set it off. Of course, the bomb had been set off anyway, but he did not need to be the cause of it. The goal had been to stop the bomb after all. Still, even if it was not the right time to use powers like that, it would have been nice to at least have the option to have them without the use of these Shields.

The Kryptonian sighed and followed after the others.


	4. Interrogating the Boy

_Above Dawley Labs Ruins, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada_

_December 9, 08:45 EST_

Zatanna woke up in the back of the Bioship, sleep still full in her eyes and her back aching from the position she slept in.

Aqualad had given a full report to Batman once he and a few other members of the Justice League arrived. The Dark Knight did not seem annoyed at all in the results of their mission, despite the fact that the Dawley Labs building had exploded. He had ordered the team to return to the Bioship and get some well-earned rest. That had been about three hours ago.

Miss Martian had moved the Bioship nearer to the site of the explosion so that the group would be closer for when Batman wanted to speak with them again. It was well hidden on top of a skyscraper. They needed to keep it out of sight because the Bioship could not maintain camouflage mode while M'gann dreamed.

The others were still asleep. Red Arrow had taken quite a beating when the Dawley Lab building collapsed, and was nursing a rather serious head injury. Aqualad had thrown himself over Red Arrow to protect him, but Atlantean skin is very tough so he still received only minor injuries. Kid Flash and Artemis were still hurt from their first fight, and the second one had caused some bruising as well. Miss Martian was uninjured, most likely due to Superboy, who was also unscathed. Besides those two, only Robin had not taken any major injury from the battle.

Zatanna stood up. Surveying her sleeping comrades she spotted Kid Flash still awake, lying on his back with his hands behind his head. He looked to be deep in thought. Her clothing rustled as she moved, and the sound took him out of his thoughts. She gave him a small wave and a smile, and he returned it before resuming his thinking.

She slowly made her way to the cockpit, trying to be as quiet as possible as to not awaken anyone else. She was not surprised to see Robin sitting in his normal seat in the cockpit, looking over something on his computer gloves and contemplating something. Had he slept at all?

"Hi Robin."

The Boy Wonder looked up. "Hey Zatanna. Doing okay?"

"Yeah, I just woke up," she replied. "Did you sleep at all?"

"A little, but you know us bats," he said with a smile. "We never need sleep."

"Sure you don't," Zatanna joked. "You and Wally both."

"He's still awake?" Robin questioned, to which Zatanna nodded. "Yeah, the deal with Jacen is bothering him a lot I think."

"So what were you doing?"

"I was just talking to Batman," Robin informed. "They just finished clearing most of the rubble and are starting the investigation."

"They only just started now?" she said, a little more than surprised. "There must be more damage than I thought."

"Yeah, according to Batman they had to remove most of the debris before they could even find anything," he continued. Robin started heading for the exit at the rear of the ship. "I was just about to go down to talk to him. You want to come?"

"Would that be all right?" she inquired. They has left the Bioship, and stood at the edge of the skyscraper rooftop. Robin just gave her one of his trademark, mischievous grins. She smiled back. "Lead the way, detective."

Robin brought out his grappling gun and shot it to the roof of another building. Zatanna blushed slightly as he gently grabbed her around her waist and swung down, carrying the sorceress to the ground.

* * *

Batman surveyed the lab ruins, looking for anything that might tell him useful information. He had spent a majority of his time here assisting the local emergency forces with the clean-up. He had brought Wonder Woman, Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern and Flash with him, but even with the four of them working with the Canadians it still took some time to sort out the wreckage. Batman had requested that Superman come to help as well, but he claimed he was working on something in Metropolis. He forced himself to not sigh; Superman was purposely avoiding anything that had to do with the team.

The three Canadian researchers that worked for Dawley Labs were unharmed, but Aqualad's report informed him that the intruders who were responsible for the explosion may still be trapped inside. There had been no sign of the teens involved (Aqualad had said they had been roughly the same age as their team), which was a little disconcerting at this point.

Thank goodness they had a forensic scientist in the Justice League. The Flash had been speeding around looking for any clues that he could find. So far he had found what appeared to be remains of the "bomb" Aqualad described to him. The nitroglycerin had already dissipated into gas, but the timer, brick and flask (or what little was left of them) were still present in the rubble. Flash was also able to determine the location of the source for the explosion, the third floor just slightly north of the center of the room, which again coincided with Aqualad's description. As far as all of that was concerned, everything fit into place.

One thing did not fit however. Scattered around the lab ruins were pieces of wiring, melted metal slabs, small power units and components for computers. Batman tapped his chin with his finger when Flash told him that. He knew there were computers in the lab (what research or breeding lab wouldn't have those nowadays?) but the number of them and the composition didn't match for computer hardware. In fact, it reminded him more of the spare components they had for Red Tornado when he needed repairs. Recalling the team's description of soldiers that could get up again regardless of injury, he automatically thought of some kind of android robots being used. That would also explain the sheer number of soldiers that all seemed identical. The League members were able to find enough parts to nearly make up an entire android soon afterwards, confirming this theory. They weren't exactly on the same level as T.O. Morrow or Professor Ivo, but they weren't badly made or designed either. Whoever did make these robots knew what they were doing.

This begged the question: who built them?

Batman turned as he heard a set of footsteps behind him. He turned to see Robin and Zatanna heading towards him. Well, he _had_ only heard one set of footsteps. That was one thing Robin had down practically from day one. It probably came from his days as a circus acrobat; one had to step lightly then too. The Dark Knight turned to face the two teens.

"Any news, Batman?" Robin inquired. Batman described to him what they had found so far. "So we're dealing with someone who knows robotics pretty well."

"Has there been any sign of the kids we fought?" Zatanna asked.

"Not yet," Batman replied. "There is still much we need to search through."

"I'm surprised it's taking this long," Robin joked. "Especially when you have the Flash and Green Lantern on the job."

"Batman!" Wonder Woman called out. The three turned to look at her, standing in some ruins a little ways away. "You really need to see this."

Batman rushed over, Robin and Zatanna right behind him. Wonder Woman had found a body…a body of a young man. Zatanna took one look at the body and had to turn away, hiding her face in Robin's shoulder.

He was a fully organic body, still mostly in one piece, but there was plenty of blood and one long slice had been made in his chest. His clothing had clearly been designed to cover as much skin as possible, but the explosion blew most of it from his body. He couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen. And that was where the oddness began.

His body was very lean and covered in light reddish-brown fur, with more white around his chin and chest. His hands were covered with short, black fur. His ears were slightly more pointed than normal and tipped black. His feet were misshapen, and it looked like he would have to stand on the balls of his feet rather than with his ankles to the ground. The most striking feature on his body was the presence of a long, bushy tail that matched his fur in color and tipped in white.

"Is he some sort of hybrid?" Robin said, more accustomed to seeing dead bodies than Zatanna was. He looked down at the young woman in his arms. "It's okay, Zatanna."

Batman crouched down to get a better look at the boy. He had seen people with part-animal characteristics before (Killer Croc was the first to come to his mind), so this was not an entirely new encounter. He had just never seen one this young before.

"I remember this guy," Robin informed. Batman looked at him. "The others called him Gabe. He was the leader of the group."

"He's…definitely dead, right?" Zatanna wondered, finally gaining the courage to turn and look at the body again.

Wonder Woman knelt down and felt for a pulse. There was no. "Yes. I'm sure."

"We have a live one!" Green Lantern shouted, lifting some more of the rubble out of his way. He was not too far off from Batman and his group. He dropped the stone he was holding up to the side and fell to his knees, checking the person's pulse. "We need an ambulance! He won't last!"

Batman rushed over as Green Lantern started performing CPR. Robin and Zatanna stayed behind this time, making sure were out of the way so a doctor could get there first. A few medics passed the two teen heroes, taking out medications and emergency life support equipment. They got to work right away in hopes of saving the young man, but it was only a few moments later than they declared him dead as well.

Zatanna slowly walked to where the boy lay. She recognized him as the one named Ian, and she told this to Batman and Green Lantern. He looked like he might be younger than Gabe. His fur was yellow with black circles, and it covered his entire body except for his face. His hands had long, sharp nails that resembled claws. He had a tail as well, longer and much thinner than Gabe's, and striped. He was a perfect picture of a leopard.

And that was pretty much the same situation when the bodies of the other two intruders were found. Flash found them not too far from where Gabe and Ian were found. Robin and Zatanna were easily able to identify them as Naomi and Grace, the remaining two members of Gabe's team.

Naomi had the characteristics of a horse. Her skin had very short, very fine coat that was deep brown. The hair on the top of her head was coarser and wavy, reminiscent of a horse's mane. Her legs were particular more muscular than one would expect on a mid-teenage youth. She did not have proper feet at all; her toes were fused together into a single, hardened hoof. Robin recalled the time, during one of their fights, that Naomi had kicked a wall and left a horseshoe-shaped depression in the concrete. This explained how she could do that.

By far the most interesting of the four was Grace. She looked like she was half-porcupine, her back covered in long, black and white quills. The quills were embedded in the muscles of her back, piercing through what was left of the cloak she wore. The rest of her was covered in rough black fur and her nose looked more elongated than that of a normal human. As opposed to Gabe's more pointed ears, hers looked more rounded.

Flash looked over all the bodies, quickly determining that the cause of death for all four was pressure damage due to close proximity to the nitroglycerin when it was detonated. Robin was a little skeptical; his team was pretty close to the explosion as well, but they most of them made it out with very little injury. Why were these teens affected more than they were?

"Where do we go from here?" Robin wondered.

"Have we gathered all the information we can?" Batman asked.

"Yup, important detective tip," Flash joked lightly. "Always investigate all leads. Your theories may change depending on any new information you find."

"There was still that one person who was here. Jacen was his name?" Zatanna thought aloud. "Kid Flash knows him, in a way."

"Yes, the police still have him in custody," Robin mentioned. "They're keeping him for questioning."

"Is there anything else?" Batman questioned.

Robin stood and thought for a moment. Besides speaking with Jacen, where else could they get information? Autopsies of the four bodies here? They wouldn't give an idea of who they were and why they were blowing up these laboratories and facilities. It had something to do with what these companies, particularly Circe Industries, were working on, and that Gabe and his team didn't like it. Jacen would probably tell them why.

He was more curious about who these people were. What were their motives? Where did they come from? Why would they try to cause so much destruction but then help Kid Flash? They were a pile of contradictions.

The Boy Wonder's mind finally clicked to what Batman was talking about. Kid Flash had told him that Jacen had rescued him from the river and taken him to his home, wherever that was. Maybe some of the stolen supplies were there, along with clues about these people and where they came from.

"Let's take a look at their home," Robin offered. "Kid Flash said it was in the sewers. We can ask Jacen to take us there."

"I have an even better idea," Flash said with a nod. "Kid Flash has already been there. If he can remember where it is, he can lead us."

"Just a minute then," Robin accepted, lifting his hand to his communicator in his ear. "Robin to Bioship. Is anyone awake?"

"This is Aqualad," came a response. "Is everything all right?"

"Just a little detective work," Robin replied. "Is Kid Flash still awake?"

"Just a moment."

Robin waited patiently. Wally may have fallen asleep again, which would have been a good thing considering that he and Artemis had been the ones to go through the most in the past twelve hours. He most likely needed the rest, but they also had a mystery to solve. It wasn't that long before Kid Flash got on the radio.

"Hey Rob," he said, sounding just a little drowsy. "What's up?"

"Batman wants to take a look at Jacen's home in the sewers," Robin explained. "He wants you to lead us there."

"Who's 'us'?"

"You, me and Batman."

"I'll be going to," Flash interjected.

"And Flash," Robin added.

"All right," Kid Flash answered. "Let me grab something fast to eat and I'll be right there."

* * *

Kid Flash only got the group of four lost a little bit while they were searching the sewers for Jacen's hideout. Most of the passageways looked the same, and Wally admitted to himself that he probably found it more by the smell rather than remembering what the way looked like.

The small room was the same as when Kid Flash and Jacen left it the previous night. The crates had been moved around a little, and an empty one sat near the back of the room. The pot of porridge that Kid Flash had eaten from had been emptied as well, and set beside the campfire that had been put out and (mostly) cleaned. The single cot he had been laying on before was folded up and joined four other cots on the far side of the room. There were some papers sitting on some of the crates that had been laid out to serve as a table.

"Split up and search everything," Batman commanded. "This shouldn't take long."

Kid Flash started with one of the open crates. Inside looked to be the few personal belongings the group owned: a few pieces of cloth of old clothing, a battered copy of _Alice in Wonderland_, and three worn tennis balls. The last item in the box was a small book with no title. He gently lifted it and opened its pages. Kid Flash stared. It was a diary. Wanting to preserve the person's privacy (even though he was sure the person would not be returning for it), he replaced the book in the box.

"It looks like they have some maps here," Flash said, looking over the table with the papers on them. "One of the city, one for bus routes, and a hand-drawn one of the sewers. All the places they broke into or bombed are circled on the city map."

"That means that these attacks were premeditated," Batman concluded.

Kid Flash proceeded to go over to the furthest crates from the entrance. Most of them were filled with what was stolen from the animal food storage facility that M'gann and Zatanna had inspected: damp hay, bags of bird seed, containers of dead insects, packets of lettuce and what looked like packages of porridge that just needed water added. He looked over at the now empty food pot and held his stomach. He hoped the porridge was all he had eaten of the stuff in here.

Well, the food mostly made sense, considering what Flash, Robin and Batman had shown him. If Naomi was part horse, she would eat hay. If Grace was part porcupine, she would eat lettuce. Foxes were known to sometimes eat insects, so maybe they had been for him. It was odd though if Ian was part leopard, seeing that leopards were predators. Glancing around the hideout again, it looked like they didn't have any way to refrigerate food, so maybe meat was not an option.

Looking at the one remaining type of food, the bird seed, Kid Flash thought of something. His mind was filled with flashes of hoods, ripped trench coat sleeves, feathers that acted like spears…Wally could slap himself. Why hadn't he figured that out before?

"Did any of the kids have characteristics of birds?" he inquired to the others.

"Not of the four we found," Flash replied. He paused from the cots he was looking at and turned to Kid Flash. "Not the four that we found…Do you think?"

"Jacen."

"Who else would eat this stuff?" Robin asked, rhetorically.

_I'm more concerned that he would eat this stuff at all,_ Wally thought.

Batman addressed the Flash. "You know what to do next."

"You want me to go?"

"Your sidekick has met him. That may put him at ease," Batman explained. "Robin and I will finish up here."

_I thought we were past sidekick status_, Kid Flash thought with a frown.

"I thought the sidekick thing was over by now," Robin groaned quietly beside him.

"Kid, ready for some interrogation?" Flash asked to his nephew.

In spite of his previous annoyance, Kid Flash grinned. "Let's go."

* * *

The two speedsters actually spend a little time just finding the police station that Jacen had been taken to, and that was saying something considering they were _speedsters_ after all. Still, once the pair found it they were welcomed as heroes. Many of the officers there even asked for autographs. It wasn't much of a surprise that stories of the Flash and Kid Flash has spread to Canada.

The sergeant was a little less impressed. Kid Flash suspected that he was hoping they would not show up to question Jacen after all. Still, he was cooperative enough and led the two to the interrogation room where Jacen had been put. He claimed to have been questioning the boy before they arrived. Kid Flash thought about him needing a lawyer before he was questioned, especially since he was a minor, but perhaps Canada was different from America? He didn't know.

There was a window from the outside that Kid Flash knew was a mirror when sitting inside. Jacen was sitting at the table, by himself, looking down at his still handcuffed hands. He had lost his gloves before and kept his hands covered with the ends of his coat sleeves, which were not in very good shape anyway. At least now Kid Flash knew why.

"Want me in there with you?" the sergeant asked, a little hopeful.

"No, that's all right," Flash responded. "Kid and I can handle it."

_Maybe I should change my name to get rid of the "Kid" part,_ Wally thought to himself as he followed Flash into the room.

Jacen looked up at the sound of the door opening. His eyes widened as he saw the elder speedster enter, and his eyes snapped back to the tabletop when Kid Flash appeared. Flash took one of the seats on the opposite side of the table, and gestured for Kid Flash to sit in the other chair. Jacen still refused to look up, or even put his hood down. Besides his more immediate face his entire head was covered.

"Hello Jacen," Flash said, sounding friendly. "I assume you know who I am."

Jacen nodded. "The Flash. And Kid Flash."

"We would like to ask you a few questions," Flash continued. "About your friends and the bombings. We don't mean any harm. We just would like some answers."

"…Can I a-ask something first?"

"Of course."

"No one w-will tell me if they've b-been found, and I wasn't there," Jacen stuttered, finally looking up. "My friends…are they…are they okay?"

Flash and Kid Flash looked at each other for a moment, debating whether or not they should tell him they found his teammates' bodies. There was a good chance that if they told him the truth, he would shut down and not want to talk. However, if they wanted Jacen to be honest with them, they needed to be honest with him. Flash slowly took a deep breath.

"We found all four of them in the lab ruins," he said quietly, trying to say it as gently as he could. "…I'm sorry, Jacen. You're the only survivor of your team."

"N-No one else made it?" The Flash only shook his head slowly. Jacen's eyes squinted closed and his face fell again. His shoulders hunched over and his cuffed hands disappeared under the table. Kid Flash began to reach a hand out to him, but though better of it. "Sorry. It's just…they w-were my family, you know?"

"…Are you okay to answer some questions, or do you need a minute?" Flash asked after a pause.

"Yeah, it's fine," Jacen replied, opening his eyes again and looking at them. "Why not? I've got nothing else to lose."

_Oh God, he sounds so hopeless,_ Kid Flash thought. _Was telling him that really the best idea?_

Flash once again paused, thinking about how he was going to approach this. He needed to word this right to make sure Jacen didn't take offense or shut down entirely.

"First, tell us about yourself," he requested. "Name, age, where you live, that sort of thing."

"…My name is Jacen Oakes," he answered flatly. "I'm f-fourteen, and I live in the Quebec City sewers."

"What about your parents?"

"Don't know. Haven't seen th-them since I was seven."

"Why is that?" Flash inquired. Jacen said nothing. "Did you run away?"

"No," he sighed. "It's a long story."

"Look who you're talking to, Jacen," Kid Flash said in an attempt to joke. "When you're as fast as us, time is something you've got plenty of."

Jacen took a long pause after this. Wally could only hope that he was just gathering his thoughts rather than trying to avoid answering the question. Eventually, Jacen did speak up.

"I was kidnapped when I was s-seven. I was camping with my family outside W-Winnipeg," he said. "I went wandering by myself near a w-waterfall and got nabbed. Stupid, stupid thing to do. I haven't seen my p-parents or brother s-since. I guess they thought I got eaten by a b-bear or something. I don't know."

"Who kidnapped you?" Flash asked.

This time Jacen addressed Wally. "The partner of C-Circe Industries."

"Does the organization go by another name?" Flash continued.

"N-Not that I know," the boy replied. "Christina uses C-Circe Industries as her public face. She's the h-head of company."

"She's the one who ordered your kidnapping?"

"Yeah."

"What happened next?"

"I was t-taken to their lab. I don't know where it is, I was b-blindfolded the whole time," Jacen continued. "The next thing I knew I was in room with c-cages where lots of other kids were kept. Gabe and G-Grace were there, with a bunch of others."

"How many children were there?" Flash posed.

"Uh, t-there were nine in my cage room when I was put in it. There m-maybe were more in other rooms. I never knew," he described. "Ian and N-Naomi were in other rooms, so I guess there were mo-more."

"You mentioned the name Christina? And that she was the head of Circe Industries?" Flash reminded him. Jacen nodded to both questions. "Does she have a last name?"

"I don't know it. She n-never used it around us," Jacen clarified. "She always wanted us to call her 'Mistress'."

_Well that's narcissistic, isn't it?_ Kid Flash thought. He then asked verbally: "Why was she kidnapping children?"

"Do you remember when I told you that C-Circe had been working on improving the human b-body by changing h-human DNA?" he reminded Wally, who nodded. "And you said…that you found all my friends?"

"We did."

"D-Did you see them?" Jacen asked. Flash replied in the affirmative. "I mean, _really_ see them?"

_Ah, he must be wondering if we saw how they are half animal,_ Kid Flash deduced. He leaned forward with another nod. _This must be the explanation for it all._

"Th-That's your answer. She wanted to improve the h-human body by replacing human DNA w-with animal DNA," Jacen described. "She w-wanted to use children b-because they're still growing."

"And would probably take the change in DNA better than an adult would," Flash concluded. "I suppose that makes sense."

"In a really twisted way," added Kid Flash.

"S-Some of them didn't make it," Jacen elucidated. "Three of the nine in my g-group died from the change, and I-Ian told me that he and Naomi were the only s-survivors of his group. The drugs are very hard to take. They hurt."

Wally blinked as he watched Jacen hunch over in his seat a little as he said this, the thought of the experiments clearly a little traumatic. He couldn't imagine what it was like to be experimented on like that. To have your body change against your will? And to experience that as a child? Jacen said he was seven when he was captured. Wally felt sick to his stomach.

"What else did Christina do?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Over t-time or recently?"

"Over time."

"Wh-Where to start?" Jacen whispered with a shrug. "Besides the in-injections with the drugs, she'd mostly try and get us to forget that w-we even had families. We were her soldiers, her investments. She's do whatever she could to m-make her obey her commands."

"Was she above torture?" Flash inquired. The look on Jacen's face answered that question for him.

"What about most recently?" Kid Flash repeated.

"W-When Christina finishes the injections, she s-sends the kids to some other place for more training," Jacen managed to go on. "We get some c-combat training during the experiment, but she sends us someplace else for the r-real stuff."

"Where is that?" Flash questioned him.

"I don't know," Jacen admitted. "The others an-and I were on a plane headed there when Gabe b-broke out of his cage. We took out the guards and used p-parachutes to escape. The plane crashed over Que-Quebec City and we hid in the sewers."

"And because of your changes from the experiments," Flash construed. "You didn't go to the police or try and contact your families."

"W-Why would we? Normal p-people thought we were monsters. A b-bunch of people really hurt Ian when he tried to talk to them once. Al-Almost broke his leg," the boy argued. "And I h-had no idea where my family is. E-even if I did, they w-wouldn't want me."

"After the change?" Flash asked. Jacen gave a single nod. "We did see your friends. Will you show us what you look like?"

Jacen froze. He obviously had not been expecting that request. He looked from Flash to Kid Flash and finally over to the mirror on the wall. Wally would only assume that the sergeant or another officer was watching the entire exchange. That must be what Jacen was no nervous about.

"You don't have to show us now if you don't want to," Kid Flash comforted him, and Jacen slowly calmed down. "But this does explain a lot. You attacked Circe Industries because it was supporting Christina and her sick experiments. Without her source of income or experimental data, she couldn't create more animal hybrids."

"That's what G-Gabe said. The attacks were his idea," Jacen confirmed. "We a-also…stole from the computer stores for the t-timers for the b-bomb. Ian made it."

"And the nitroglycerin?" asked Flash.

"We st-stole that too," he replied. "Naomi knows more about that sort of thing. Her d-dad was a chemistry person or something."

"Do you know how dangerous that stuff is?" Kid Flash asked. "The smallest thing can set it off. You're lucky you guys didn't blow yourselves up."

"Naomi s-said that too," said Jacen. "We kept it in a d-different part of the sewers, so we'd be okay if it went off ac-accidentally."

"So you bombed Circe Industries because it was a source of income and information for Christina," Flash summarized. "Why did you attack Dawley Labs? It did supply Circe Industries with rats for their experiments. Were you trying to stop those as well?"

"P-Pretty much."

"And what about the animal feed storage facility?" Kid Flash questioned.

"We n-needed food. We didn't always st-steal it," Jacen explained. "We usually took some from dumpsters, but it was making Naomi f-feel real sick."

"Were those the only places you attacked?" Flash asked.

"Yeah. You've g-got to believe me, we never wanted to hurt anyone!" he stared at the Flash imploringly. "We always ma-made sure no one was in the places we bombed! We just wanted to stop Christina from doing this to any more kids!"

"I believe you," Flash said. Kid Flash looked at him with a blank face and said nothing. "I believe you. But right now you're looking at some pretty serious crimes. Theft, bomb threats, and putting people in life-threatening situations to name a few."

Jacen gulped. "So…wh-what's going to happen to me now?"

"The Canadian police don't have the means of keeping you here safely," Flash informed him. "They want to transfer you to Belle Reve."

"Belle Reve…That's the p-place where all the b-big bads go, right?"

"That's right," Flash confirmed. "They are kept under control with inhibitor collars."

"S-So I'm being sent there," Jacen said, trying to hug himself as well as he could with his hands cuffed. "Th-That's okay. I'm probably safer there."

"What do you mean?"

"You…you saw her robots in the lab, didn't you?" Jacen wondered, looking at Wally. "Those were Christina's r-robots. They were supposed to f-find out who blew up her lab."

"I remember one of them asking if we were the ones who caused the explosion," Kid Flash updated his mentor. "When Artemis and I were first investigating Circe Industries."

"Christina w-wanted to know who was responsible, but she f-found out about us at the same time," Jacen explained. "She was l-looking for us, to take back to her p-prison. I'd be s-safer from her at B-Belle Reve. She ca-can't get me there."

Kid Flash closed his eyes. He heard the reports from Conner and M'gann regarding what it was like in Belle Reve, and he remembered it from when the team went to visit Professor Ivo to get information regarding Red Tornado. It was unpleasant enough just to visit there, and he absolutely did not want to ever end up there as an inmate. Now here was a boy who _wanted_ to go there in order to escape from this woman. What on earth had she put him through to make him prefer Belle Reve to her?

"There is another option," said Flash. "You wouldn't need to go to Belle Reve but you would be safe from Christina."

Jacen and Kid Flash both looked at him. Jacen was starting to shake. "What?"

"I can convince the police here to put you into the Justice League's custody," Flash offered. "If you are willing to join our covert team, we can over time forgive the crimes you've committed."

"Really?"

"Consider it a sort of community service."

"You're talking about my team, right?" Kid Flash asked, although he already knew the answer. He was mostly saying it for Jacen's sake.

"The very same," Flash confirmed. "What do you say?"

Jacen was silent. He looked to be deep in thought. Glancing over at Wally for a split second, he was visibly hesitating. Wally also noticed that Jacen seemed to be having trouble keeping eye contact with him.

"I know that K-Kid Flash's team is probably really mad at me," he said at last. "Would they even let me on the team?"

"We'd have to tell them what you've told us," Kid Flash answered. "But I think the others would understand."

There was another long silence before anyone spoke again.

"All…All right."

Flash smiled. He had succeeded on two fronts. First, he got the answers he had been hoping for (and by the look on his nephew's face, he did as well). Second, he managed to help Jacen not end up in Belle Reve. He wasn't a bad kid; he just needed someone to put him back on the right path. This was the most Flash could do though. He would have to ask Wally to keep an eye on him and try to help him out of his shell, but the rest would be up to Jacen himself.

"I'll let the sergeant know the plan then. We'll get you out of here and to your new home in no time," Flash told him, standing up. He was at the door when he realized that his protégé was still at his seat. "Kid Flash?"

"I'll be right there," the red-head replied. "I just have something to say to Jacen."

Flash cocked his head a little but nodded and left the room, leaving the two teens in the interrogation room alone. Wally returned his gaze to Jacen, who had his head bowed again. He was fiddling with the edge of his sleeve and Wally could see the tips of his fingers, which looked relatively normal. This poor kid. He really had no one left in the world, did he? Wally felt another bout of sympathy towards the younger teen.

"You're right about one thing, Jacen. I was really mad," he said. Jacen just nodded and hunched further into a ball in his seat. "Still am, kind of. You lied to me when we met, and deliberately left me in the dark. This all could have been avoided if you had told me the truth about who you are when I asked."

"I-I kn-know," he replied, his normal stutter suddenly worse. "I-I'm s-s-sorry."

"But that being said, now that I know the whole story I do understand why you didn't tell me," Kid Flash continued. "You didn't know me, so I wasn't expecting your life story or anything like today. But it really makes it hard to trust you right now."

Jacen simply nodded slowly again. It would seem that this time he didn't trust his voice.

"Obviously, you've been through enough that I bet trust is really hard for you too," Wally said. This time his voice was softer. "So how about we start with a clean slate? No more secrets? If something's bugging you, you tell me. If something's bugging me, I'll tell you."

"Y-You sure?"

"Yeah. It'll take some time, but your joining my team is not supposed to be a punishment," Wally spoke on. "Not really. But you need to talk to us if you want us to trust you, okay?"

"I…I'll try," Jacen said, a little more steady this time.

Kid Flash gave him smile. "Let's get you out of here, huh?"


	5. Being Human

_Mount Justice_

_December 9, 20:45 EST_

The sergeant of the Canadian police was not very willing to let Jacen go, but after filling out all the paperwork and verifying the Flash's identity (as the Flash of course, not as Barry Allen) the boy was released under the custody of the Justice League. The rest of the team had long since returned to Mount Justice, and had busied themselves getting ready for the new addition to the team. They set up a spare bedroom and brought a single box that Robin had gathered from the hideout in the sewer. It was the same box that Wally had found, and contained the few items that may have belonged to either Jacen or one of his companions. They thought it would be nice for him to have it.

Wally had also told the entire team what he and the Flash had learned during Jacen's interrogation. They all agreed to not mention the details of Jacen's imprisonment or the reason he was on the team. If he wanted to talk about it in detail he would have to be the one to start the conversation.

"You told Jacen to not keep any secrets, correct?" Kalder asked Wally as they waited in the Mission Room.

"That's right."

"Do you think that will encourage him to open up to us?"

"I hope so."

"He better be willing to talk," Roy argued, crossing his arms across his chest. "There are too many secrets around here as it is."

"Better not push him too far, Roy" Robin said. "We might just force him further into his shell."

"Agreed," Kalder concurred with a smile. "Let him move at his own pace."

_Just another teammate with just another secret,_ Artemis mused to herself.

"M'gann, can I ask a favor?" Wally said to the Martian. "Don't link him up for a while. Hearing voices in his head might freak him out."

"No problem," M'gann replied, with a faint blush. "I remember when I first did it with the rest of you. I wouldn't do that again."

Suddenly the computer voice from the Zeta Tubes called out. "Recognized: Batman, zero-two. Flash, zero-four."

Batman walked over to the team and turned to face the Zeta Tubes while Flash walked over to the computer, quickly typing. As he finished, the computer spoke again.

"Access granted. Jason Oakes, A-zero-four. Authorization: Flash, zero-four."

Jacen walked through the tube into the room, shivering a little as the whirling of the Zeta Tubes stopped.

"I d-don't like that feeling," he muttered.

"Don't worry," Kid Flash comforted. "You'll get used to it."

"Welcome to the cave, Jacen," Kalder greeted, holding out a hand Jacen shook it, his own hand still covered by his trench coat sleeve.

"We'll leave you to get settled in," Flash said. "And get a good night's sleep. You all need it. I'll see you later, Wally."

Flash headed out via the Zeta Tubes again, and Batman turned to address the rest of the team.

"Show Jacen his room. Flash is right," he ordered. "You should all get some sleep. Robin, return to the Batcave when you're done."

He gave a nod to Robin and then exited as well. Wally watched as Jacen made eye contact with each person, his eyes widening at Superboy and his eyes snapping to the ground. Well, being the clone of Superman, Conner's appearance was probably pretty daunting, especially to someone who knew the Flash as well as Jacen seemed to. Naturally he would be more than a little nervous around someone related to the Big S himself. That reaction would be relatively normal.

"Come on, Jacen," M'gann interrupted the silence. "I can give you a tour."

"Perhaps a tour can wait until tomorrow, when there is daylight," Kalder suggested. "Jacen, you must be tired. We have prepared a room for you to rest in."

"Th-Thanks," he acknowledged. "I…I am really tired."

"Let me carry this," Wally offered, picking up the box. "This has a bunch of things from your hideout. We figured you'd want them."

Jacen just stared at him for a minute, as if he was shocked that someone would bother getting some of his and his friends' things. He did manage to give a small grin to the speedster.

"Y-Yeah," Jacen responded. "Th-Thanks, Kid Flash."

As a few members of the group led Jacen down the hallway to one of the spare bedrooms, Wally could only think one thing: How could he get the kid comfortable enough to stop that stuttering?

* * *

_Mount Justice_

_December 10, 07:17 EST_

M'gann woke up bright and early as she always did. With high schooling being out for the winter holidays, she was able to enjoy getting up and making a good breakfast for her, Conner and Zatanna. Cooking was one of her favorite pastimes, ever since she saw it on "Hello, Megan!" and began doing it when she arrived on Earth. She had only gotten better with every new batch of cookies, new dinner recipe, and now new breakfasts.

She was just getting ready to cook some eggs and make some waffles in the kitchen. M'gann also made note of how much food was left in the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator. Conner would often eat a lot of food, and now with both Zatanna and Jacen staying in the cave she would need to make sure there was plenty of food prepared. Four people (one of them a teenage Kryptonian) made a lot of mouths to feed. M'gann felt a little like a mother taking care of her children, but not necessarily in a bad way.

The young Martian looked up as Jacen stumbled into the lounge and kitchen from the bedroom hallway. She looked up as he entered and gave him a smile, which he returned. He was still wearing his trench coat and had his hood up again, and M'gann wondered if he had slept in his clothes. She made a note to himself to see if there were any clothes for him in the cave, and if there weren't she would go shopping for him.

"Good morning, Jacen!" she said rather brightly. "Did you sleep well?"

"Y-Yeah, no problems," he replied. "Wh-What're you doing?"

"I was just making some breakfast," M'gann explained. "How do you like your eggs cooked?"

Jacen seemed to visibly freeze at the question, and started to look sick. "E-Eggs? Um, I-I'm not s-sure I r-really…e-eggs…"

"Hello, Megan!" she scolded with a slap to her forehead. Wally and Robin had said that Jacen was a bird hybrid, so naturally he would probably not want to eat eggs! "How about a waffle instead?"

"Y-Yeah. That'd be g-good."

M'gann started whisking the waffle batter and putting it in the waffle iron. She loved the fact that the Mount Justice kitchen was fully stocked with every possible cooking tool imaginable. Jacen sat on a stool at the counter and waited patiently. M'gann finished up the waffle, poured a rather generous amount of syrup on it, and held it out to him. Jacen reached out with both hands to take the plate. Both sleeves pulled back from his hands in the process, revealing normal fingers, but the back of his hands were covered with royal blue feathers. As she passed the plate over M'gann brushed her fingers along the feathers. Jacen immediately pulled back, taking the plate with him.

"S-Sorry."

"It's okay," she reassured him. "Is your entire arm like that?"

"K-Kind of."

"May I see?"

If Jacen was hesitant before, he was nearly frozen in fear now. He stared at M'gann, as if she was crazy to even want to ask such a question. He blinked a few times, but slowly held out his arm. Jacen kept his gaze away from her, as if afraid to see her reaction to such an unnatural thing. Carefully grabbing the torn sleeve, M'gann pushed it back to reveal the rest of his limb.

Like his hand, it was covered in blue feathers. Longer ones sprouted further down his arm, forming a sort of wing. Some of the feathers were bent a little from being trapped in his clothing. M'gann petted them gently with her hand, feeling that all of them were very silky to the touch.

"They're so soft," she commented. The boy finally looked over at her, and she released his arm. "What about the rest of you?"

"I d-don't think you wa-want to see that," he muttered.

"Why not?"

"I'm n-not exactly normal lo-looking."

"Jacen, I'm a Martian," M'gann argued. "I'm the last person to worry about being 'normal looking'."

_I'm such a hypocrite,_ she thought to herself. _I can't even reveal my true Martian form to my friends, and here I am telling him this…_

Jacen took a good look at her, still sitting at the counter. He looked like he was truly contemplating what she was saying. M'gann found herself genuinely wanting to know what was on his mind. Based on what she had heard from Kid Flash, Robin and Zatanna, she could imagine exactly why he was so afraid.

"**Maybe I should show her?"** M'gann suddenly heard in her head. **"Kid Flash did say I can't keep any secrets."**

She realized that she had inadvertently read his mind, and immediately shut down the link. Trying to act as if she didn't hear anything, she continued to watch him. If he found out that she had heard his thoughts he would be incredibly unhappy, to say the least.

A few more moments passed before Jacen lifted his hands to his hood and slowly lowered it. His brown hair was intermingled with long blue feathers, the longest of which stood up in the back and formed a crest. His face was free of feathers, but his ears were slightly more pointed than normal and tipped with very small feather barbs. The feathers continued down the back of his neck to what little of his shoulders M'gann could see. He had dark brown eyes, but they consistently looked away from her face.

Sure he looked a little strange, but she didn't think he was nearly as frightening as he probably thought he was. To prove his point, M'gann shifted her features to match his, taking on the same appearance of a blue jay-human hybrid.

"See?" she offered. "Not scary at all."

Jacen released a chuckle that sounded a little like a chirp, and gave a small smile.

"Thanks, Miss Martian," he returned.

"When I first met Kalder, he told me that when we aren't on a mission we can call each other by our regular names," M'gann informed. "You can call me M'gann, or by my Earth name, Megan."

"…Thanks, Megan," he repeated.

The two were still smiling at one another when Conner stepped into the room. Jacen looked over at him, then back at M'gann with a panicked expression. Pulling his hood back over his head, he leapt down from the stool and hid around the corner, knocking the stool over in the process. M'gann shifted back to her usual self and gave Conner a nervous smile. The Kryptonian frowned.

Conner grabbed the plate with the waffle on it, which Jacen had left behind, and kneeled down next to the boy, making sure that he kept some distance as to not frighten Jacen anymore than he has. He held the plate out, and Jacen just stared at him.

"You left this," Conner said. "Can't have you starving, right?"

Jacen slowly took the plate and stood up. "I-Is is okay if I eat this in my room?"

"Of course, Jacen," M'gann replied. The younger boy started to head back down the hall to the bedrooms when she stopped him. "Conner, Zatanna and I were going to watch a movie later today. Would you like to join us?"

"S-Sure," he stuttered out with a smile. He relaxed a little and headed to his room.

M'gann went back to preparing her eggs as Conner sat down on the stool that Jacen had abandoned. The Martian girl gave him a smile as she sat some scrambled eggs in front of him, knowing that this was how he liked his cooked.

"**Sorry,"** he thought to her. **"Didn't mean to interrupt."**

"**It's okay, Conner,"** she thought back. **"You didn't interrupt anything."**

"**I really scare him a lot,"** Conner thought-spoke.

"**He's scared of a lot of things,"** M'gann answered. **"He was afraid when our hands touched just a moment ago."**

"**But especially me,"** he corrected her. **"I saw it yesterday too when he first arrived. You've got to admit, I can be intimidating."**

"**Well, you can work on showing him you're really just a big softy,"** she offered.

"**Yeah, I'll work on that,"** Conner thought with a smile. **"It's not like I really blame him for being so afraid. If he was kept in a lab most of his life, he probably doesn't know how to interact with others."**

M'gann flipped over a pancake and paused. **"Is this about Jacen or you?"**

"**Both I guess,"** he responded. **"I just…know how it feels, about the experimentation and all that. I can't say I disagree with his or his friends' logic about wanting to stop genetic experimentation."**

"**You feel the same way?"** M'gann asked. Conner cocked an eyebrow at her. **"You don't want others to be hurt the same way you were."**

"**I would never want someone to go through what I did,"** Conner explained. **"I'm a perfect example of how that can go wrong or be used against you. Jacen and his gang were just trying to stop this Christina woman from hurting others the same way. I'm not saying what they did was right, but I understand where they're coming from."**

M'gann put a hand on his for a moment, and they smiled together. Zatanna walked in shortly after, joking about smelling the pancakes M'gann had been cooking.

* * *

_Gotham Academy, Gotham City_

_December 11, 13:09 EST_

_Why am I here?_Artemis thought.

She was sitting on the steps of the Gotham Academy entrance. School had been out for at least a week, and yet here she was. Artemis had gotten into another argument with her mother about Jade. Paula had somehow learned that Artemis had spoken with Cheshire on multiple occasions (Artemis had a feeling that Jade had made a personal appearance to their mother for her to know this) and had gotten angry at her younger daughter for keeping this information from her. She had insisted that Artemis try to convince Jade to give up a life of crime. Artemis had argued that she had no control over her sister or her actions. Surely, if she couldn't convince Jade when she was younger, what possibility did she have now? The two had yelled at each other a bit more, and Artemis had walked out.

This left the young archer sitting at her school to blow off some steam. She didn't know why she went to the academy of all places. Artemis knew that she didn't want to go to the cave, being as angry as she was. The last time she did that, things just ended up worse.

_Why can't I get that mission out of my head?!_ She wondered with a groan.

"Artemis?" a voice called out. The blonde turned her head to see who it was. Wonderful. Dick Grayson, millionaire Bruce Wayne's ward. Just what she needed. "Are you all right? What are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same thing," she replied, avoiding the question. "School's out. What brings you here?"

"I was heading somewhere to hang with a friend," Dick replied, but he was not about to let her distract him. "What's wrong? Something's upset you?"

"I…just had an argument with my mom," Artemis finally admitted. "I needed to get away."

"Usually when I'm mad about something, I go hang out with some friends," Dick suggested. Artemis stifled a laugh. She was at the school _because_ she didn't want to see her friends right now. "They usually help me feel better. Don't you hang out with Bette most of the time?"

"She went to California to visit family," Artemis told him.

"Anyone else?"

"Sure, but I don't feel like talking about my problems with them," she replied. "Or you for that matter."

"Wow, something's _really_ bugging you, with that attitude," Dick fired back, somehow keeping the smile on his face. Silently, he added: _Artemis is definitely not feeling the aster._

"Sorry," Artemis said. "Bad mood."

"I'll leave you to your mood then," Dick answered. He began to continue his walk down the pavement when he turned to the young woman again. "You know, there's nothing wrong with talking about your problems with friends. They're more understanding than you might think."

With that, the young ward walked off, almost vanishing in fact. Artemis rubbed the bridge of her nose in irritation.

_The last thing I want is to go to the cave only to find another mission is in the works,_ she thought.

She really didn't need a repeat of last week. Artemis also had a feeling that Wally and Roy were going to be avoiding her…well, Wally would be at least. Roy on the other hand would probably be watching her even more closely whenever they were in the same room or on the same mission together. She certainly did not want him breathing down her neck at every move she made.

And did she really want to face Wally again so soon? Wally had been avoiding her ever since that night after they got back from New Orleans. The mission in Quebec City had been the first time he had spoken to her in days. Even during that mission they managed to butt heads. Artemis wondered if they would ever be on good terms again…

With a sigh, she stood up. This was ridiculous. She hadn't let Wally's negative attitude towards her affect her before, and why should Roy's? Maybe if he saw that she wasn't up to anything he'd leave her alone. Or maybe he wouldn't, but she could hope right?

_What the hell,_ she said to herself, heading towards the nearest Zeta Tube. _Why should I let Red's paranoia decide whether or not I can hang out at the cave?_

* * *

_Mount Justice_

_December 11, 13:43 EST_

Artemis entered Mount Justice via the Zeta Tubes to an eerily quiet Mission Room. No one was there, with no indication that anyone even lived there. Normally she would see Conner, Kalder or Robin sparring, or possibly Wally. Or maybe she would see Zatanna chatting with M'gann about something, which usually involved cooking.

But there was no one here. Artemis took out her bow and loaded an arrow. The last time she was caught unsuspecting in this room was the time she and Robin had to deal with Red Torpedo and Red Inferno. Though it was unlikely that this was a similar situation, she had learned to not take any chances.

Artemis made her way through the cave and ended up in the combined kitchen and living room area. As she suspected, M'gann was in the kitchen making some sandwiches that were probably for a late lunch. Zatanna, Conner and Jacen were all sitting on the couch watching what appeared to be the ending sequence to Disney's The Little Mermaid. M'gann was watching it every so often as well while she sliced up meat and cheeses.

"Hi Artemis," the Martian girl greeted. The other three looked up at her entrance and waved. "What brings you here?"

"…Do I need a reason to hang out with friends?" Artemis joked, trying to take on a more cheerful pose.

"No no! I didn't mean that," M'gann corrected herself. "I was just making lunch. Would you like a sandwich?"

"Sure," the archer replied. She sat down on the arm of the couch next to Zatanna. "The Little Mermaid?"

"Can you believe that Conner and Jacen have never seen a Disney movie?" Zatanna asked her. "I heard that, and I _knew_ this problem had to be remedied."

"I've heard of Disney before," Conner stated. "I've just never watched one myself."

"I sa-saw some when I was younger," Jacen added. "I remember one was about a girl who d-dresses up like a boy. It takes place in Ch-China, I think?"

"Mulan?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah, I th-think that's it," Jacen confirmed. He continued to watch the film as the wedding at the end took place. "I don't get it."

"Don't get what?" Zatanna inquired.

"This fi-fish girl causes all this trouble, all for this man," Jacen summarized. "But she doesn't really d-do anything to help when that Ursula person comes around."

"It's supposed to be romantic," M'gann debated. "Ariel gives up her entire life under the sea, her friends and her family for love on the surface. It's a love conquers all story."

"I'm with Jacen on this one. Ariel really just causes problems for the rest of the characters," Artemis argued. "She's selfish and acts like she won't be happy unless she gets exactly what she wants, she trades her voice to the villain when there are red flags all over the place telling her that it's a bad idea, she sits around while her friends do all the work to get her together with this guy, and her boyfriend is the one who defeats Ursula while she sits around helplessly. And she doesn't change at all over the course of the movie. She wants something, she complains when she can't get it, and in the end she gets what she wants. Honestly, she's more of the villain than Ursula is."

By this point, everyone had stopped what they were doing and stared at Artemis. She blushes slightly at her rant. "Sorry."

"No, those are good points," M'gann conceded. "I think we're supposed to just think about the love story instead of all that though."

"I'll pass on the lo-love story part," Jacen said.

"The original story is less about love and more about having a human soul anyway," Zatanna explained. "And at the end the mermaid turns into sea foam and then becomes a daughter of air after refusing to kill the prince when he marries another woman."

"Now that s-sounds more interesting," said Jacen.

"Still, I like the part where the prince stabs the giant octopus with the ship," Conner said with a smirk. Everyone laughed at that. "That's probably not in the original story, huh?"

"Maybe we could try another one?" Zatanna offered. "One with less romance and more action?"

_As long as it isn't Alice in Wonderland, I'm fine with that,_ Artemis thought.

"W-What others do you have?" Jacen asked.

Conner stood up and headed for the DVD player and the stack of DVDs next to it. He pulled out a few that looked interesting.

"There's Alice in Wonderland," he began to list, and Artemis gave a shudder. "Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Beauty and the Beast…"

"**I vote against anything with part animals in it,"** Zatanna proposed through their mind link. **"Wait until Jacen's more comfortable with us first."**

"How about The Sword in the Stone?" Conner suggested, taking Zatanna's thoughts into account.

"Now if you want an inaccurate portrayal of Merlin himself, magic and the story of King Arthur, that's the one," Zatanna joked, but nodded. She, as a sorceress, would know after all.

"Nah, don't like that one very much," Artemis refused. She then explained her reasoning telepathically. **"Merlin turns Arthur into different animals in that one."**

"Peter Pan?" Conner said, holding the DVD up.

"Yeah, that's better."

M'gann finished making lunch and passed a sandwich around to everybody. The group then settled in the living room in front of the big screen TV and started to watch the film.

* * *

_Mount Justice_

_December 14, 09:27 EST_

Robin entered the Mission Room. He had not been to the cave in a few days, with night business in Gotham taking up most of this time. Wally had told him that he went by the cave each day to check up on how Jacen was adjusting, and that he seemed to be doing okay. Robin was also happy to know that Artemis did in fact stop by the cave a few days ago after his chat with her in Gotham. She needed all the support she could get, even if it came from the unlikely source of his secret civilian identity.

Everyone else was already at Mount Justice when the Boy Wonder arrived. They were about to start a training session, and since Robin finally had time for it he knew he didn't want to miss out on practice sparring. He gave Kid Flash a fist bump before looking around. Green Arrow was there for some reason, and he didn't seem Black Canary anywhere. She was normally the one in charge of training, so where was she?

"Where's Black Canary?" he finally inquired.

"Speech lessons with Jacen," Kid Flash informed him. He gestured to the other side of the room with his thumb. Sure enough, Black Canary was sitting on the sidelines with Jacen, helping him with his speech patterns. "We're hoping to stop that stuttering of his."

"I'll be in charge of supervising training today," Green Arrow told him. "Although this is going to be really simple. Everyone partner up and practice."

Robin and Kid Flash took to being partners immediately. Miss Martian and Zatanna also paired up, followed by Red Arrow and Aqualad and finally Superboy and Artemis. The couple of times that he managed to get Kid Flash pinned to the ground he watched Artemis take down Superboy a few times. The young Kryptonian was not to be outdone, however, and he managed to beat Artemis a few times as well.

The real problem seemed to lie with Red Arrow. He would pin Aqualad down a number of times and groan about how he shouldn't need to train like this. He was Justice League material after all, and this was a waste of his time.

"This is ridiculous," the older red-head complained. "We should be practicing against real foes, not each other."

"Knowing your teammates' weaknesses as well as your own is invaluable, Roy," Green Arrow told him. "Where they are weak you must be strong, and vice versa."

"True, but I don't need to learn what those weaknesses are," Red Arrow argued. "I know each one. I could beat anyone here anytime."

"Prove it."

By this point, everyone, including Black Canary and Jacen, had stopped what they were doing and stared at Red Arrow and Artemis. The blonde archer was staring at Green Arrow's former protégé, smirking a little.

"Excuse me?" said Roy.

"I said, prove it," Artemis challenged. "If you know us so well."

Red Arrow returned her smirk. "I've been waiting for an excuse to do this."

The two archers entered the training circle, one on each side. The rest of the team stood back, not wanting to get in the way of the inevitable fight.

"Artemis, Roy, stop this right now," Black Canary demanded. "You two need to get used to working together instead of butting heads this way."

"Ah let them do it, Dinah," Green Arrow said. "They've needed to do this for a while."

Without their bows, Wally had to admit that it was interesting to see the two archers fight in close quarters combat. He had seen Red Arrow fight this way during his days as Speedy, but that was on the rare occasion that the string on his bow was snapped or his bow was broken. He also knew that Artemis had this kind of skill, but he usually only saw it during training. She was generally better about keeping her distance so her bow wasn't damaged. Wally had to give her credit for her talent at that. Now, however, he was curious about how she would stand up against Red Arrow himself.

The two lunged at each other, each sending a punch into the other's shoulder. Roy immediately spun around with a kick, but Artemis managed to grab his foot and spun him around, sending him crashing into the ground. Roy let out a growl as he looked up at Artemis.

"Now he's getting angry," Conner mentioned, watching the scene.

"Sh-Shouldn't we be worried?" Jacen asked.

"Try again, Jacen," Dinah said gently. "The 'sh' sound should come through your teeth."

"Shouldn't we be worried?" he repeated.

"Nah," Wally replied. "Let them duke it out."

"There's been enough tension between them as it is," Robin concluded. "Better now than during a mission."

Roy and Artemis had returned to sparring, passing punches, evading attacks and parrying blows for several minutes. There were times where it looked like Red Arrow had gotten the better of Artemis, but the younger archer always managed to dodge out of the way or redirect Roy's attack so that he went crashing into the ground. It was good to see Black Canary's training had not gone to waste on the green archer, which was the advantage that Artemis clearly had over Red Arrow. After a few minutes of this, Artemis managed to pin one of his arms behind his back and force him to the ground. Wally himself was pretty impressed, and he smiled as he watched her.

Artemis looked down at him, her smirking returning to her expression. "Beat anyone here anytime, huh?"

With that, she let Red Arrow up. She offered her hand to help him up, but he just knocked it away and stood on his own. Grumbling, Roy headed out of the Mission Room.

"Red Arrow sure walks away from us a lot," Zatanna noted.

"Should we go after him?" M'gann asked.

"Red Arrow can be a little…inflexible at times," Aqualad told her. "We should let him be for now."

"Roy just needs some time to cool off," Green Arrow explained.

"He just doesn't like being proven wrong," Artemis taunted indirectly.

"More like he finally got bested by a real archer," Wally said quietly, so that only Artemis heard him.

She snapped his head in his direction, and everyone else probably thought he had said something insulting. Kid Flash just gave her a small smile and shrugged. Artemis softened her glare at that.

_Is…Is he trying to get along with me now?_ She wondered in her head, careful to not project her thoughts through the mind link. _He tried that before. Maybe…Maybe we _can_ start to get along again?_

"It is more likely that he is still preoccupied by the possibility of a mole on the team," Aqualad reasoned.

_Don't get your hopes up, Artemis,_ the archer thought, only paying half attention to the conversation. _Keep your head straight, and don't give him another reason to be mad._

"Not that again," Conner muttered.

"…Mole on the team?" Jacen asked slowly, trying to make sure he didn't stutter this time.

"I'll explain it when training's over, Jace," Wally said.

"Might as well be now," Green Arrow said.

"I agree," Black Canary agreed. "That should be enough for today."

"Well then, I'll explain after we get something to eat," Wally declared, leading the others in the direction of the kitchen. "I'm starving!"

"You're always starving," Robin teased.

"Hey, I've got a metabolism!" Wally contended. "I'm a speedster after all!"

Jacen gave a small smile as he followed the group to the kitchen.

* * *

_Mount Justice_

_December 20, 16:59 EST_

Time passed, and the team soon started a new tradition. Between missions, and when as many of the team could, they met up for dinner and to watch a movie. M'gann got the chance to try out new recipes, the others got to be guinea pigs for her cooking experiments, and the discussions about the merits of each film sort of acted as a team-building exercise. As each evening passed, it felt more and more like they were a family rather than just teammates. Why hadn't they done this before?

The only glitch in the program was that Roy refused to join in most of the movie nights, claiming that it was childish.

"Who's he calling childish anyway?" Zatanna growled. Her infinite patience seemed to snap where Red Arrow was concerned.

"Yeah, what's wrong with doing some things kids might enjoy?" Wally concurred. "We only get to be young once after all."

"And some of us didn't have proper childhoods," Robin added. He of course would know that point better than anyone else.

"And we're serious when we need to be," M'gann added. "But it's like Wally said, we're only young once."

"Let Roy be," Kalder eventually said, putting a stop to any other arguments. "He simply grew up faster than we did. Do not let it ruin the evening."

"Yeah, enough with the arguing with someone who isn't even here," Conner agreed, sitting by the DVD player again. It had somehow become his unofficial job to load the movies into the player each night. "What should we watch tonight?"

The group had gone through each of the Disney movies that they wished by that point, although they still passed on any films that involved anthropomorphic animals for Jacen's sake, and had moved on to Pixar.

"Do we have The Incredibles?" Wally asked. Conner cocked an eyebrow at him.

"You're a superhero," he stated, deadpanned. "And you want to watch a movie about superheroes?"

"What? It's funny."

"I like the idea of Finding Nemo," Zatanna suggested. "How about that one instead?"

"Better decide fast!" M'gann hollered from the kitchen as she pulled a pork roast out of the oven. "Dinner's almost ready!"

The team settled down to eat and watch the movie a few minutes later. There was a point where they had to pause the movie because Wally and M'gann kept passing the quote "P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney" back and forth to each other, and it was distracting to the film. Other than that they had a good time. Even Aqualad enjoyed the film, which was a little odd in the minds of the other teammates.

"At least it is a slightly more accurate depiction of life in the ocean than The Little Mermaid," Kalder claimed.

"Yeah, Atlantis is probably not like that at all, huh?" said Wally.

"No, not in the slightest."

"Are we back to Disney taking very strong liberties with the storylines of the tales they base their movies on?" Zatanna wondered.

"Pretty much," Robin answered. "It seems to be a common trend around here."

"Maybe we should watch something a little more accurate?" M'gann asked.

"Then where's the fun in poking holes in the story?" Zatanna added. "No point."

The group debated this point for a few minutes, and laughter filled the room at each joke. It was such a light-hearted atmosphere, one that Wally could eagerly enjoy. His happiness was only momentarily stoppered when Artemis gave him a gentle poke in the stomach with her elbow. He looked at her in annoyance, and she just pointed to the boy sitting on his other side. Wally looked over through the corner of his eye, and his eyes widened.

At some point during the movie, Jacen had lowered the hood of his trench coat, leaving his bird hybrid features for all to see. Wally wasn't sure at what point he had done this, and if anyone had seen it before they did not mention it. The speedster smiled at Jacen and then at Artemis.

"It's almost as if he's normal," Wally whispered to her. "And that's saying something, considering all of us."

"Hey, any progress is progress," she murmured back.

* * *

_Mount Justice_

_December 23, 01:04 EST_

"…You know what I'm doing? Making a bologna sandwich," Jacen heard Wally say as he passed the hall that led into the kitchen. At the voice, Jacen paused and turned, spotting the speedster at the kitchen counter working with bread, meat and cheese. "Kind of like you just did. I talked to Tornado. You guys are not on a mission. Not an official one anyway."

There was a pause. Jacen looked around the lounge area. Robin, Red Arrow, Artemis, Miss Martian and Superboy were all on a mission somewhere in Europe. He knew because he spotted them talking about it, and Artemis later told him they would be leaving for a few days. Kalder had left for some business in Atlantis with Aquaman, and Zatanna had gone grocery shopping for M'gann for Christmas dinner. He and Wally were the only ones in the cave, as far as he knew. Who was he talking to?

"The circus guy?" Wally said to no one. "From your old Flying Grayson days?"

He took a bite of his sandwich, and Jacen continued to look on. There was a longer pause and Wally kept chewing.

"Then why not bring me along? I know your back story. I know what that circus means to you. It's where you grew up. It's where you lost your—"

Wally was interrupted at this point, and lowered his food back to the counter. Jacen finally got it. He was talking on one of their ear communicators, which explained why he was only hearing one side of the conversation. Whoever was on the other side was having a hard time with something, if Wally's tone was anything to go by.

"Dude, that's what a best pal's for."

Jacen kept to the hallway entrance, not wanting to interrupt but still incredibly curious about what was going on. He waited a few minutes while Wally talked a bit more.

"You know I'm here to talk if you need it," Wally said. There was a lengthy pause again. "Will you guys be back for Christmas? …Okay, see ya. Good luck."

The communication must have ended, because Wally gave out a loud sigh and went back to his food. He raised his head, spotting Jacen still standing at the door, and he froze.

"How much of that did you hear?" he questioned.

"Since the making a bologna sandwich part," Jacen admitted. "But nothing else, I swear."

"Arg, that was most of it," the red-head complained. "Don't go eavesdropping like that, okay?"

"Sorry," the younger boy said. "I guess this means I can't use Flying Grayson as my codename, right?"

"Oh god," Wally uttered. "If you did that I'd never hear the end of it, and I'd probably be hung up by my heels or something."

"Don't worry, I was joking," Jacen teased. "I don't even know what a Flying Grayson is."

"Promise you won't repeat what you just heard?"

"Heard what?"

The pair smiled. Well, that was taken care of.

"So, you're thinking about a codename?" Wally asked.

"Yeah. Zatanna and M'gann said that when I get to go on missions I'll need one," Jacen explained. "But I don't know what to use. I'm thinking about it."

"I take it that something like Blue Jay would be more than a little insulting, huh?" Wally deduced. Jacen pulled a face as if something unpleasant smelling had been placed under his nose. "Yeah, thought so. Don't worry, you'll think of something."

"It's too bad I don't have a mentor to get one from," he replied. "I get where you, Kalder, Conner, M'gann and Roy all get your names, Artemis' real name can double as her codename, and Zatanna just uses her regular name. Why is that?"

Ignoring the voice in the back of his head saying that Conner didn't really have a mentor (if you were to ask Superboy anyway), and that he didn't get his name from Superman necessarily (being the codename that Cadmus used for him), Wally shrugged. "You know, I'm not really sure. I've never asked."

"Where does Robin get his name?" Jacen inquired.

"He wears red like the bird, and took it from Robin Hood," Wally described. "At least, that's as far as I know. He's always just been Robin."

"Well, I definitely don't want to be Blue Jay," Jacen protested. "That's just lame."

* * *

_Mount Justice_

_December 25, 16:36 EST_

_Christmas Day_

Robin and the rest of his group returned late the previous evening. Jacen immediately noticed a change in the group mindset. The group was overall calmer, less strained than when they left. Something had happened over the course of the mission. Red Arrow was actually _smiling _and willing to spend time in the cave for training and, well, just talking. That in itself was mind-blowing. On the other hand Superboy seemed tense, more so than usual. Jacen wasn't sure which he should be more worried about: Roy's happy disposition or Conner's gruffer attitude.

In any case, the brighter mood was just in time for Christmas. Jacen had told Wally that he had not celebrated this holiday (or any holidays for that matter) since his capture. He wasn't expecting gifts or anything, but he was looking forward to it. In all honesty, he was more interested in what M'gann was going to cook for Christmas dinner than anything else, and had been pestering her about it for hours that morning. His curiosity combined with Wally's voracious appetite for all foods holiday-related made her job much more difficult. Everyone was going to be coming in to visit and eat at some point, either before or after spending some time with family and friends, so there were enough mouths to feed as it was.

As dinnertime approached, however, there was one person who did not have any Christmas spirit at all.

"Zatanna? Please come out?" M'gann begged her through the sorceress' bedroom door for what must have been the fourth time that day. "Just for a while? We all want to see you, and I bet you're hungry?"

"I'm not hungry at all," the young girl's voice replied. She didn't open the door or make any other indication that she was going to unlock it. "And I really don't feel like celebrating."

"Just a taste? There's plenty," M'gann pleaded. She was still wearing her apron and holding a few cooking tools, and she knocked once more. "I made ham, stuffing and potatoes, and…and apple pie and sugar cookies? The ones with the star and moon sprinkles you like?"

"Please leave me alone, M'gann."

The Martian's shoulders slumped with a sigh. She dejectedly returned to the kitchen to continue working on her dinner. Christmas was meant to be spent together with friends and family, not holed up alone in a bedroom…of course, the "family" part was the source of the problem.

"Still won't come out?" Artemis asked her when the alien walked in.

"No," M'gann answered sadly. "Not at all."

"What's wrong with Zatanna?" Jacen inquired.

"Do you know about Dr. Fate?" Kalder asked.

"He's the guy with the magic helmet, right?" Jacen clarified.

Wally gave out a chuckle, and everyone there stared at him. "Sorry. 'Guy with the magic helmet'."

Kalder sighed. "Dr. Fate's current host is Zatanna's father, and he controls Zatara's every move and thought. He cannot spend any time with her unless Nabu removes the helmet."

"Which he's not doing any time soon," Artemis inserted.

"So she's acting like he's as good as dead then?" Jacen wondered.

"Just about, yes," M'gann confirmed. "Thanksgiving was really hard on her too. I shouldn't be surprised that she's reacted this way on Christmas."

"Still, no one should be left alone on Christmas," Wally concluded. "There's only one thing left to do."

Artemis looked at him. "What's that?"

"Call in the one person who can pull her out of her room," he said.

Wally left the somewhat confused team and took out his cell phone. He dialed the number he wanted and whistled as it rang.

_I'm sure Dick won't mind an excuse to get away from one of the Wayne Christmas Charity events,_ Wally thought.

It wasn't even fifteen minutes before Robin, in civilian clothing and still wearing sunglasses, entered the cave via the Zeta Tubes. He was going to visit later that night anyway, but Wally's call convinced him to come earlier. Bruce could deal with his parties on his own. Once he arrived at the cave, Wally quickly led him to Zatanna's still locked door. Wally left, and waited by the doorway with Jacen as Robin knocked on her door.

"Zatanna? It's Robin," he called out to her. "Wally tells me you have been holing yourself up in your room."

"Not now, Robin," she begged, her voice breaking a little, certainly more than when M'gann spoke to her. "Please."

"…I know what's going on, Z," Robin said. "You miss your dad. I don't blame you one bit. But he wouldn't want you sitting alone in your room miserable on Christmas."

"I know he wouldn't, but how can I be happy when…" Zatanna trailed off.

"How can you be happy when he's gone," Robin finished. It wasn't a question. "How can you be happy when you feel responsible for what happened? What right do you have to smile when the person, or people, you love are suffering or gone?"

There was silence from Zatanna's door this time. Robin just stood in front, his head lowered. Wally and Jacen watched from the side, wanting to leave the Boy Wonder with his words of comfort as much as they could. And the young man kept going.

"I won't say that the pain goes away. It never does. I know better than that," he described. "But that shouldn't stop you from smiling now or in the future. We all want you to come out because we _want_ you there, we _want_ you to smile and be happy for a day."

There was only more silence.

"I know you feel very alone right now, Zatanna, but you're not," Robin continued. "We're all here, and we want you too if you'll have us."

If Zatanna had said anything, it was too quiet for Wally to hear. Robin looked like he was going to say more when Zatanna's door slowly opened and the young mage walked out. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. Robin slowly returned the hug. Zatanna didn't cry or sob, but she did hold onto him for a good few minutes before she removed herself from him and they moved to join the rest.

"About time!" Wally called out. "Can't you smell that ham M'gann's cooking?!"

"Thinking with your stomach as always, huh Baywatch?" Artemis teased.

Time passed, and the gang was finally able to enjoy the party. Christmas music played in the background, quietly enough that it didn't bother Conner's sensitive ears. M'gann, as always, had made a delicious dinner, a Christmas ham complete with stuffing, pie, cranberry sauce among other foods, as well as the sugar cookies with star and moon sprinkles. Zatanna ate more than her share of those. A few of the mentors like Green Arrow and Flash even stopped by to see how they were doing. There was laughter and jokes and merriment all around, even from Conner who had been in a sour mood earlier. All in all, it was a great party.

"What movie is Zatanna putting on?" Jacen asked later in the evening as he watched her work the DVD player.

"It's a Wonderful Life," Wally answered. "Old movie. Technically not Christmas, but it has Christmas spirit stuff in it."

"I've never seen it actually," Robin said. "Batman hasn't let me. He could never get past the title."

"Sounds like a happy movie," Jacen concluded. "Based on the title."

"Kind of. It's about the life of a man who gives up on a lot of his dreams to help others," Wally described. "Stuff happens and eventually he learns that even if it wasn't what he expected, he really does have a wonderful life, hence the title."

"Sounds like something Zatanna really needs right now," said Jacen, and Wally couldn't help thinking it was something they _all_ needed reminding of every now and then. "She's cool. Zatanna I mean. I really like her a lot."

Wally knew that if it wasn't for the training on how to maintain a calm appearance in a moment of surprise or distress he had received from Batman, Robin would have spat out the apple cider he just took a drink from. Luckily he had taken in that training well, and the Boy Wonder only swallowed his drink with a gasp.

"Oh, you like her huh?" Robin said with a cock of his eyebrow.

_Oh yeah, _real_ mad,_ Wally thought, knowing full well of Robin's attraction to Zatara's daughter.

"Yeah. She's kind, funny, and strong in her own way," Jacen explained. "She reminds me of Andrea."

Wally, who was about to tease the boy, paused at that. "Who's Andrea?"

"Another one of the kids that Ch-Chris…" the hybrid boy began. He cleared his throat, forcing his voice to not stutter. "Christina experimented on. She was in the cage next to mine."

No one else recognized the face of immense relief on Robin's face but Wally. Again, Batman's training had kicked in and the dark-haired boy just smirked.

"Ah, I see," he joshed. "A very good _friend_ I'm sure."

"Well…ah…" Jacen just laughed nervously. He was saved when Zatanna called out that the film was starting. Most of the group went to sit in the lounge, except Jacen. "Wally?"

"Yeah?"

"Has, um, has anyone in the League mentioned finding out anything about Christina's lab?" he inquired.

Now there was a heavy question, especially for Christmas. Wally took a breath before he answered.

"Batman is looking into it," he replied. "Unfortunately we don't have a lot to go on. Most of it is based on the attacks your team did and the information you gave us. Circe Industries itself has been investigated, but we couldn't find anything that would warrant further search or allow us to arrest anyone. This Christina really knows how to hide."

"She was always very secretive," Jacen moaned. "I just hate sitting here while the other kids there are…"

"I know, Jace," Wally comforted him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "And trust me, the minute we know anything we'll let you know."

The two joined the others and watched the film all the way through. By that time, it was starting to get late and the ones with families wanted to get home. However, before anyone got the chance to say good night Aqualad stopped them. He turned to M'gann and Zatanna.

"Have you two finished it?" he asked them.

"Hello Megan! I completely forgot!" the Martian said, jumping up from her seat in Conner's lap and rushing off to her room.

"Yes, we finished it, Kalder," Zatanna answered.

"Finished what?" Artemis questioned.

"You'll see," Robin voiced. "My part's not done yet. Those will have to come later."

"That is all fine," Kalder responded. "At least he will know that they are coming."

"What's coming? What's done?" Conner wondered.

"I've no idea," Jacen said.

"Here it is!" M'gann called, bringing a white box back into the room with her. "Sorry it isn't wrapped. I didn't have time today, with cooking dinner and everything."

Jacen was shocked when she placed the box on his lap. "What's this?"

"A gift," M'gann said simply. "From us."

"I wasn't expecting a present," he protested.

"Trust me, Jacen," Kalder reassured. "This is a practical gift."

The boy lifted the top of the box and stared at its contents. He looked up at each of the members of the team and then back at the box.

"Is this…?" he trailed off.

"A costume," Kalder stated. "It is for when you begin joining us on missions."

"You can't go around on missions in that coat of yours," Wally argued. "Go on, try it on!"

"Yes, please do," M'gann bid him. "I want to make sure it fits right. I can make adjustments if you need."

Jacen nodded, stood up from the couch and walked down the hall, presumably to his room in order to change clothes. Conner and Artemis all looked a little confused.

"You made him a costume?" Conner inquired to his girlfriend.

"Yes. Wally's right, he needs one of his own," she replied. "And that coat really won't do for any missions. I did the sewing, and Zatanna helped me with some metalworking."

"For his belt and a little armor," Zatanna clarified.

"And what was your part?" Artemis asked Robin. He didn't get a chance to answer though, because Jacen had returned by then. "Well that was fast."

Jacen timidly walked into the middle of the room. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt that left his hands and arms uncovered. The blue feathers that had been kept in sleeves before were now exposed and spread out to look a little more like wings. The shirt stopped near his rear end to allow some long tail feathers to spread out behind him. There were small plates of light metal armor on his chest for a little added protection. His legs were covered with dark blue jumpsuit trousers, down to the point of his ankles, with a strong belt strapped with a metal buckle. As he was currently wearing no shoes, it was easy to see dark grey bird scales going down the bottom of his legs to his feet. His toes were elongated a little, with long black nails that curled downwards. Wally had never seen Jacen without shoes on before, and thought that his feet looked very uncomfortable. Those toes and talon-like nails certainly explained his frequent limping though.

"What do you think?" M'gann asked, a little nervous. "Is it comfortable? Anything need changing?"

"No, it's fine," Jacen said quietly, keeping his arms crossed. "I feel a little exposed."

"We thought that if you were going to throw any of those feather arrows of yours from your arms, you'd need to have your arms bare," Zatanna reasoned. Jacen stared at her. "What? I saw you use them back in Quebec City. I figured you wouldn't want to have torn sleeves all the time."

"We based the design mostly on Aqualad's uniform," M'gann explained. "You sure it's okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry."

"You also have a pair of custom boots coming to protect your feet, courtesy of WayneTech," Robin offered. "I had noticed you had changes in your feet, and thought it was probably hard for you to walk. The boots have padded foam to fit your talons, and should help you not hurt as much. They won't be done for a few more days though."

Wally stared at Robin for a minute. So he had noticed Jacen's feet but Wally hadn't? Well, he supposed he shouldn't be too shocked by that.

"Thanks you guys," Jacen acknowledged with a smile. "For everything. Really."

* * *

_Mount Justice_

_December 28, 10:20 EST_

Artemis stretched. She and the team had just finished an early morning training session with Black Canary, during which she managed to pin Robin down three times she might add. He pinned her during sparring just as many times, but that was beside the point. Black Canary had even said that she was impressed that Artemis was doing so well during training, praise which Artemis was not letting get to her head. Really, it wasn't.

The blonde archer had hit the showers afterwards, wanting to prolong her time in the cave as long as she could. She had made up with her mother over their argument before by this time, and she wasn't trying to avoid her mother. Artemis just felt like she was welcome at the cave again. It seemed that the tension regarding the alleged mole had eased quite a bit after Red Arrow had announced that he didn't think there was one back in Geneva, and she and Wally were starting to get along again, with only the occasional gripe or spat. It seemed the two had made an unspoken decision to not mention New Orleans again. Artemis still doubted that either of them was back on the footing they had been prior to that mission, but it was better than it had been just after it.

In fact, the only one on the team that seemed to be out of sorts was Jacen. Artemis sighed. Just when it seemed he had become accustomed to being in the cave and working with the team he started going back into his shell a bit. He had been that way ever since Christmas, when the team had given him his costume gift. Robin had brought the custom boots he had promised just that morning, and sure enough they were formed on the inside in a way that made it possible for Jacen to walk around like a normal person. And just like Artemis, Jacen had received some praise from Black Canary during training, although it was clear that he was nowhere near as skilled in combat as the rest of the group. Still, he had been doing so well. What had gone wrong?

Artemis decided that she didn't want to just let him sit around and sulk. They deserved to know what was going on, if he was going to be part of the team. She ignored the nagging voice in the back of her head that said her line of thinking was rather hypocritical. She had a boy-bird hybrid to find.

She did not expect to find Jacen sitting alone on the couch in the lounge, watching Disney's Robin Hood of all things. They had purposely been avoiding movies with anthropomorphic characters, and now here he was watching one. He was wearing his new costume, which he had been doing for the past three days, claiming that he was trying to get used to wearing it. He was sitting cross-legged on the couch with a small book in his hands.

"Hey Jacen," Artemis greeted. Jacen looked up from his book and smiled at her. "What're you doing?"

"Watching a movie and reading," Jacen responded. "Sort of. Not at the same time."

"Are you okay? You've been sort of quiet the past few days, even for you."

"Still just adjusting I guess."

"Any reason for this movie? We're probably going to watch one tonight anyway."

"I wanted to see what the fuss was about," Jacen explained. "I know you guys have been avoiding some of these Disney movies because of me. Now I see why."

"…You sure you're okay?" Artemis asked, looking at the humanoid foxes on the screen. "Maybe you shouldn't watch this."

"It's okay. I'm not awkward or anything," he replied. "Not anymore anyway. Being here, with you guys, has made me feel normal, you know?"

"That's good," she confirmed. "That's what we want, but I think something else is bothering you."

"That easy to tell, huh?"

"What's up? You can tell me."

"…It's about the missions," Jacen finally admitted.

Artemis cocked her head and sat down next to him. "Which ones? What about them?"

"The ones you guys expect me to go on in the future," Jacen explained. "The ones I'm going to wear this costume to."

"Right. Those missions," she nodded. "That won't happen for at least a few more days, probably. Why?"

"It's stupid," he said. "When the Flash asked me to join the team, I knew I was going to eventually be going on missions. I just didn't expect it to be so soon, or that you guys would trust me enough to let me go."

"Trust is something we tend to have a problem with on this team," Artemis confessed. "I joined the team about five months ago, and I didn't have Red Arrow's trust until right about now. I think some other members don't completely trust me by now either. I wouldn't worry too much about it."

"Kalder says that trust is important for a team to work together," Jacen nearly recited. "I just guess it would take longer, that's all."

"If there's another thing I know," the archer continued. "It's that the missions can help us build trust. They can help destroy trust too, but you get what I'm saying."

Jacen chuckled. "Yeah, you're right."

"So you're watching the movie and reading at the same time?" Artemis questioned, changing the subject. "What book are you reading?"

"It's actually not a book," he answered. "It's Grace's diary."

"Grace…oh! She was on your team," Artemis recalled. She then scoffed. "You're reading her diary."

"It's evil, I know," Jacen conceded. "But it's one of the few things I have left of my friends, and it's interesting to see her point of view of what happened."

"What does she say? If you don't mind me asking."

"Most of it is just her talking about what we did and what she thought about it," Jacen described. "She does talk a little about copying some files we found in the Circe labs, but I don't know what they mean. But it's all really simple stuff. Grace was the youngest after all."

"How old was she?"

"Twelve."

Twelve. Twelve years old. A kid. A kid went through all the things Jacen did, and look how he turned out. What would Grace be like now, if she had survived that explosion? Based on Jacen's face she better let that matter drop.

"You said she copied some files from Circe Industries?" she asked.

"Yeah she did, but like I said I don't know what they mean," Jacen told her. "Christina must have been writing in code or something, anything that would help keep her labs secret from people who would steal those files."

"Like you."

Jacen grinned. "Yeah, like us."

"Can I look at it?" Artemis requested. "Maybe a fresh set of eyes can understand it."

Jacen closed the small diary and held it to his chest. "Would you…read the rest of it?"

"Not if you don't want me to," she stated. "I'll only look at the part from the files if you want, but I am curious about what Grace had to say."

"…If I said yes, would you promise to not share what you read?"

"Unless it directly affects how I interpret the file information, then yes I can promise that," Artemis assured. "Think of this as one of those trust-building exercises between team members."

"Team members, huh?" Jacen repeated. "You know, even Gabe never called us a team."

Thinking about his dead friends must be very hard on him. The young man took a deep breath and then held the diary out for Artemis to take. She carefully pulled it from his grasp and placed it in her lap.

"I promise I'll take care of it and give it back to you when I'm done."

"I just hope you have better luck understanding those numbers than I did," Jacen said. Artemis gave him a pat on the shoulder and then rose. Jacen's hand suddenly flew out and grabbed hers. The young archer turned back to him. "Grace was the youngest, you know. Don't…Don't laugh at what she said, okay?"

Artemis shook her head. "I wouldn't do that."

That was what Jacen wanted to hear, and he released her hand. Artemis stood next to him until he was comfortable on the couch again, watching as the children's film neared its climax. With a grin and both hands on the diary, Artemis left the room.

* * *

_Gotham City_

_December 28, 14:45 EST_

Artemis's stomach was filled from the lunch she had just finished with her mom. Paula had stayed in the living room to watch some television, and Artemis had left for her bedroom. She had been thinking about Grace's diary ever since Jacen had given it to her that morning.

She honestly didn't know why she had asked him if she could read it. Sure, maybe she could understand what Grace had copied from the files that his team had stolen from Circe Industries (she remembered that the theft of those documents were part of the reason she and Kid Flash had been sent there during the mission in Canada), but Artemis wasn't sure if Grace even knew what she was writing down. Now she had to try to interpret the writings of a twelve year old. On the other hand, she was curious about what Jacen and his team had done after their escape and how they ended up in Quebec City in the first place. Wally had mentioned that Jacen said he and the others had been on a plane heading to a training facility when it had crashed and they escaped. Where had that plane been headed?

Artemis flopped down on her bed and took a deep breath. Grabbing the diary that had been sitting on her bedside table, she began to read. Hopefully she would be able to find out something.

_Oct. 23, 2010,_

_I found this book when we looked for supplies in some of the dumpsters. I don't know why someone would just throw away a blank book like this. Naomi said I should write in it as a diary, but I don't really know what to say. I don't mind having something to put my thoughts in though._

_It's been three weeks since our plane crashed and we escaped Circe. They were sending us somewhere to finish our training. Christina said that I had lots of potential, especially since I'm the youngest. But I know that she's more interested in Jacen. I asked her why but she wouldn't tell me. Jacen says he doesn't know either._

_Anyway, we managed to find a place to hide in the Quebec City sewers. We have to hide because the people think we're some kind of monsters. Gabe won't tell me, he thinks I'm too young, but I understand that much. Ian was hurt pretty bad by some guys who thought he was a freak. His leg still hurts from that, and I don't want that to happen again. We got to stay hidden so that doesn't happen again._

Well, that was a typical enough entry for an almost-teenager who had been subjected to experimentation at a young age. It was clear that she knew about Circe Industries from the start. Artemis had learned that the Justice Leagues investigations into that particular name had led to a dead-end. The only place that used that name was the lab she and Kid Flash had investigated.

Grace also said that Christina was most interested in Jacen. Artemis wondered why that was. Obviously Jacen didn't know, so asking him wouldn't do any good. She turned the page to the next entry, which was dated a number of days later. Grace apparently didn't write every day.

_Oct. 27, 2010,_

_Gabe has said we need to use everything we can now since we're on our own. "Waste not, want not" he said. I don't know exactly what it means, but I know we can't waste things like food. We don't have much left. I really hope we don't have to go into dumpsters again. That last food we got from there made Naomi really sick._

_Jacen found an old TV set in the dump the other day, so we can at least watch the news. Not much else on either. Gabe wants me to watch some kids' show, saying I need have a childhood while I can. I think it's a little too late for that. He's just saying that cause he's the oldest anyway._

"It's a little too late for a childhood" Grace apparently had thought. The torture that these children suffered during these experimentations was brought into question once again. Artemis didn't want to think about it. They also resorted to rummaging through dumpsters for food? What a horrible thought. Artemis wasn't really shocked that rotten food like that would make one of them feel ill, but where would they have gotten food otherwise? Zatanna and M'gann had investigated an animal feed facility in Canada, and Artemis wondered if that would be mentioned in the diary later.

_Nov. 1, 2010,_

_We went outside last night because Ian spotted some people who looked like us. Turns out they were just in costume. Something called Halloween. I don't know what that is or what it means, but we got to walk around without anyone trying to attack us this time. A bunch of the kids went up to doors and got candy from strangers too. Gabe had us do it too, and now we have more candy than we can eat! It makes me feel sick when I eat too much._

_Gabe started looking at maps too. He's the only one who can understand them. They just look like big pictures to me, and I can't read them at all. He told me that he was planning something for Circe Industries, that he wanted to get back at Christina for what she did to us. He had always treated me like a kid before this, so I didn't know why he was so open about it now. When I asked him he told me that he would need everyone's help to pull these off, and that they could be dangerous. I hope not too dangerous._

Halloween, of course, was probably the one time these kids would ever be considered normal among everyday humans. Grace didn't know what Halloween even was. Both of these facts were particularly sad. This entry did confirm that revenge had been on their mind when Jacen's team made their attacks, although Artemis had sort of already known that.

_Nov. 4, 2010,_

_We attacked a chemical plant today and stole some of the supplies there. Naomi knows more about chemistry than anyone else. She got some of the chemicals and put them in a separate part of the sewers so they don't explode on us. She said it could if we weren't careful, and she didn't want us near if an accident happened._

_Ian's not happy about stealing things. He says it's not "honorable" or something. I don't think he really means that, since he was one of the first to go into the plant. He wants revenge on Circe just as much as the rest of us, so I think he was arguing just for the sake of arguing. Gabe just laughed when I mentioned that to him._

_Gabe has also been working on finding the different places he wants to bomb. There's one place just in the city, one of the Circe labs. It must be one of the public ones that Christina uses to make money for her testing. He went out scouting the spot tonight to see how easy it would be to sneak in and how many people would be inside. Hopefully not too many. I don't want anyone to get hurt because of us._

_Jacen teased me that the only reason I put the dates in my diary is because I see it on the TV. That's fine. I don't mind when Jacen teases me. He barely talks anyway with his stutter. His experiments made talking harder for him than anyone else._

Artemis noticed that Grace mentioned Gabe a lot when it came to the planning and organizing of things. He must have been their leader, or the closest thing to it. It was also becoming increasingly clear that all the thefts and attacks done by Jacen's group had been planned, albeit not very well. None of them seemed to have any idea about computers, bombs, geography, or anything else. In fact, it seemed that Naomi's small amount of chemistry knowledge and Ian's guesswork about computers were the only things they knew for certain. Artemis wondered what sort of education these children received, if any at all. Obviously they could read and write, but what about everything else?

There was also the matter of Jacen's stutter. "His experiments made talking harder for him"? What did that mean? Thinking back to what little she knew about Christina's experiments, Artemis suddenly thought of something. Gabe had been a fox, Ian a leopard, Naomi a horse and Grace a porcupine. All of these animals were mammals just like humans, yet Jacen's DNA had been combined with a bird's. Could the difference in anatomy be enough to affect his speech? Artemis had of course heard of parrots that were intelligent enough to learn to speak some basic human words; maybe Jacen had just needed to use his voice the way they did in order to speak properly. His lessons with Black Canary had paid off, since she couldn't remember the last time she had heard him stutter, and once it was gone she hadn't thought about it again until now.

Artemis continued to read.

_Nov. 24, 2010,_

_I really messed up today. We were going into a computer store to steal some timers for Ian's bomb, but I managed to shock some of the wiring and set the place on fire. Naomi and Ian all have pretty bad burns in their feet from when they tried to get me and Jacen out, and Gabe's tail was burned too. Gabe said to not worry, that accidents happen, but my friends got hurt because of me. I won't let that happen again._

The fact that Grace was twelve once again entered Artemis' mind, and she put a hand over her eyes. She was a twelve year old kid! And she was already worried about someone being hurt on a mission because of her! Jacen also told them that he had been seven when he was kidnapped and the experiments had started. These were kids, for crying out loud!

This hit a little too close to home. She too had started to receive training from her father at a very young age, training that had been exhausting and cruel both physically and mentally. And the first time she had killed…No young child should have to go through that. Children should be concerned about their friends, going to birthday parties, procrastinating doing homework, eating cookies and milk, and playing. Artemis had done none of these things, and she seriously doubted that either Jacen, Grace or any of the others had either.

Their childhoods had been stolen from them.

_Nov, 29, 2010,_

_We ran out of food a few days ago. Gabe really didn't want to search dumpsters again after Jacen had been spotted last time. Some of the dumpster food has been making Naomi feel even sicker than before too. She was throwing up real bad then, and Gabe was really worried. I think he likes her._

_Ian got the idea of stealing from the zoo food. After all the stealing we've done, I don't think it bothers him anymore. He says that it's "for the greater good." I think it's more because he's hungry too and he wants revenge on Circe. He acts that way more than any of us. Anyway, Gabe planned out for us to steal small amounts. We don't want to take too much from the zoo, but they have plenty of food anyway. Jacen and Naomi were able to make a campfire in the hideout, so we can at least have warm meals again. I like this. I've missed warm meals._

There was the mention of food again. As Artemis had predicted, Grace mentioned their stealing from the feed facility in order to survive as well. And not having warm meals? She wondered if the food that M'gann cooked for Jacen had been the first real meals he had eaten since his capture. That would explain why he hounded her about food so often. Sympathy swirled in her stomach at the thought.

_Dec. 6, 2010,_

_We finally did it. We finally blew up one for Circe's labs. Ian's bomb worked perfectly, and it gave us just enough time to get any scientists out of the building before it went off. Gabe said that we had to make sure we didn't kill anyone in the explosion, and that if we did we'd be no better than Christina. I agree completely. I don't want to be stuck at her level._

_We also stole a bunch of the files about the experiments Circe was working on. Gabe read through them and said that those experiments were just like ours. He burned the files in our campfire tonight and then went to go think. Naomi left to follow him, saying he needed to blow off some steam. What they don't know is that I saved some of the files and copied them. Who knows? We might want them later, but I think Gabe was too angry to think about that. He'll thank me later I think._

_When they came back Gabe said the files talked about a rat research lab that gave Circe the rats they experiment on. He said he wanted to bomb that place too. Naomi said we had enough of the bomb liquid for Ian to make another one. Jacen said it might be too soon. He saw it on the news and didn't want us to get caught. Gabe said it would be okay though. I hope he's right._

That was the last entry, and Artemis lowered the book. She paused for a moment to take it all in. Grace had written that last entry just three days before her death. That fact was a little haunting. The entry said that Jacen was concerned about the group getting caught, meaning that they knew of the possibility but went ahead with their plan anyway. Clearly it didn't matter if they got hurt or killed, as long as they stopped Christina. After reading the few entries that Grace had written in her diary, combined with what she knew from Jacen, she couldn't find herself able to blame them for their actions.

Artemis raised the book up to her eyes again. Now, it was time to get to the reason she had borrowed the diary in the first place. The problem was, after the last entry there was nothing. The next few pages were blank. Artemis' brow furrowed in confusion and frustration. Jacen had said that Grace had written down some numbers, so where were they?

The young woman felt kind of silly when she found some more technical terminology a few pages down. Most of it was a description of the experiments on the rats and resources for funding. Quite a bit of it was written with more scientific vocabulary, which Artemis did not completely understand but could at least get the gist of. Clearly Grace had been thinking ahead. She had planned to write more in her entries and didn't want the file information to interfere with it, so she had skipped a few pages before writing them down. It was at the parts involving financial issues, about three pages down, when she found a list of numbers. Artemis looked at the list carefully.

40.7142 N, 74.0064 W

39.7392 N, 104.9842 W

34.0006 N, 81.0350 W

It was indeed just a list of numbers with a few letters, but Artemis, being the clever young woman that she was, recognized what they meant immediately. Jacen must not know geography very well, or he would have realized the list was sets of coordinates, with the N letter representing north for latitude and the W letter representing west for longitude. Now for the hard part (Artemis was hesitant to even call it that): determining the locations these coordinates were referring to.

Thank goodness for the invention of the internet. Artemis typed in the coordinates into her laptop and quickly came up with three locations: New York City, New York, Denver, Colorado and Columbia, South Carolina.

Artemis grabbed her cell phone and called up Green Arrow.

"This is Oliver Queen," he answered, his phone having a little static.

"Hey Ollie. It's Artemis. Are you busy?"

"Hi Artemis. Not at the moment, what can I do for you?"

"I was talking to Jacen and looking at a diary from one of his friends, and I think I might have a lead on this Christina person," she explained the situation very quickly. "The diary has some coordinates for cities that may have labs related to Circe Industries."

"And those labs may be owned by or partnered with his kidnapper. Good job, Artemis." her mentor deduced on the other end of the call. The girl smiled. "I'll use the Watchtower computer to search for any genetic research labs at those locations. What are the coordinates?"

_If we can get more info on Christina and where her main lab is located,_ Artemis thought, suddenly very excited. _We can rescue the other kids and put a stop to her experiments._

"The first one is 40.7142 north and 74.0064 west, New York City, New York," she recited. "The second one…"


End file.
